Unseen Consequences
by Metaphysical
Summary: Orochimaru has join forces with ole Voldy and Naruto-tachi has been requested to guard Hogwarts and Harry Potter. It's the fourth year and so- everyone must be on the alert as anything can happen during the Triwizard Tournament. AU- Subtle Yaoi
1. Chapter 0: Prologue

**Disclaimer**- Naruto is property of Masashi Kishimoto. Harry Potter is property of J.K. Rowling. However, the plot is mine. As writing disclaimers gets tediously boring, I will only mention it this one time and will also apply to all future chapters.

**Brief Summary** (Revised as of 4/6/09): As Orochimaru has join forces with ole Voldy- the Naruto-tachi has been requested to guard Hogwarts and the infamous Harry Potter. It's the fourth year and so- everyone must be on the alert as anything can happen during the Triwizard Tournament. As a bout of new found love and danger comes into play- this will be one hell of a year for our golden trio and their three guards. AU|YAOI|SASUNARU

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Unseen Consequences**

P r o l o g u e

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"The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be? - it is the same the angels breathe."_ -Mark Twain

* * *

Across the wide open land and through the steep mountains. Over the seemingly endless deep blue sea and pass the evergreen forest. Along the border of one land and into the next, it continued onward, knowing that it would not rest until it has reached its destination. Wings open wide, its body soaring high into the sky, it flies forth, not once wavering but flying proudly and true. A majestic and rather breathtaking sight as the female long-eared owl made her long trip across the unfamiliar land. Her piercing amber orbs scanned the scene below her with a calculating gaze, her eyes searching for her one true destination. It wasn't long afterward that she finally sighted the place she sought, her lithe body perking in anticipation as she angled downward and made to land.

Even if hidden from view beneath the many trees, nothing could escape her sharp eyes and keen senses. She was not your usual owl after all. Beneath it all, a village sat, the very place blending with the forests and mountains that surrounded it. Luckily though, concealment was something the long-eared owl was all too familiar with. Diving down, descending farther and farther, the owl was only a few feet away from landing. Her eyes seeking the right branch to land upon, her speed seemed to ascend faster and faster and just when you would have thought that she would have collided, the owl landed gracefully upon a strong and sturdy branch- right after she had lean down to take the envelope from her talons tight grip and into her beck. She held the envelope firmly within her mouth whilst her head cock to and fro, her amber eyes remaining alert as she assessed her strange surrounding.

This is the place she needed to be? Her head lulled to the side as if in curiosity.

Right before her, a large gate stood. With it's door closed, it was indeed an imposing sight but that teetered the owl not. All that welled up inside of her was the determination to have the intended person receive the letter she held. Yes. That was all that mattered. Well- the thought of snacking on a mice that scurry passed her line of vision seemed pleasing as well but knew she would have to save that thought for later. Hopping into the air, her wings flap rapidly to gain the needed speed and momentum and once again, her body lifted into the sky once more, gliding now just above the very gates she had seen. Now however, she was granted by another site as she soared pass the large green gates.

No one seemed to notice her. Well, she posed no threat after all so it was obvious that no one would and in such a village as this, owls and birds of the like could be seen as a normal sighting.

Below, was a bustling village, the people all about and everyone were busy and hard at work. Smiling and cheerful faces, all very much so happy at what they were doing. Ah- it was truly a sight. The many buildings, high and low, old and new- they were all corroded together with their orange, blue, and red tiled rooftops and in the not so far distance, a mountain stood with five artistically carved faces engraved into the rock's hard surface- four male and one female. It was a very impressive sight.

The long-eared owl scanned it all with an ever watchful eye and as her amber orbs sighted the tall tower located at the center of this village, the long-eared owl knew she had found her true destination. Wings spread wide, her body tilted sideways as she soared downward. With the envelope still within her mouth, she landed with a soft thump just outside one of the many large windows that surrounded the upper most floor of the tower. Hopping closer to the window pane, the owl peer into the clear glass window, her head tilting to the side as she noted the inside of the room.

Empty. Empty of anything except for the back of a chair that sat before a large desk of which was filled with scrolls and books, and an assortment of documents. Was anyone there? From her view, she couldn't tell. Not bother to wonder through, the long-eared owl placed the envelope down at her feet. She then began tapping at the window.

Clack, clack, clack. Nothing.

Clack, clack, clack. The blue chair moved.

Clack, clack, clack. The chair began to turn and a woman with long blond hair could be seen. A small blue diamond shape mark marred the top her forehead. Wide brown eyes, full pink lips and an overly large bust- a fully and finely figured woman. The woman's head lulled to the side as she notice the owl perched outside her window, her eyes gaining then a curious expression as she stood and made her way to the window. Arms extended, the woman pushed up the window, opening it.

Taking this chance, the owl picked up the envelope and hopped inside but remain on the sill still.

"Well," the woman began, "what is that you have there?"

The owl place the envelope on the sill next to her and cooed at the woman. She was happy that she had completed her job successfully. Cooing again, she then began to preen herself as she ran her beck through her feathers. She straighten once more when the woman reached out, albeit slowly and cautiously, to pick up the envelope and seem to read the address upon the front. The frown that the owl had already notice upon the woman's face deepen afterward and as the hand that held the letter dropped to her side, the woman turned her eyes back to the owl. Her face was then filled with a look of wonder before she returned her gaze to the envelope in hand.

In bold emerald green ink, it read:

**Ms. Tsunade, Fifth Hokage****  
Uppermost floor of Hokage Tower  
Konohagakure no Sato  
Land of Fire

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TBC

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Soifra's Ending Note-**

The story has been edited as of **Apirl 10th, 2009**. I am going through all the chapters and making corrections in spelling, grammar- et cetera, et cetera.

About this chapter: Yes, it's short but it's a prologue. Prologue have no need in being long- it's just there to start off a story and what I have written explains what I wanted to tell the readers. I am satisfied. It is written from an owl's point of view and I know that the owl appears to behave very much like that of a human. If you haven't notice, guessed or wondered though, J.K Rowlings depiction of her owls are very similiar as they are not ordinary owls after all; they are magical owls and I think it is a given that they have a right to have some human characteristic.


	2. Chapter 1: A New Mission

**Unseen Consequences**

C h a p t e r 1 – A New Mission

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"All that really belongs to us is time; even he who has nothing else has that."_ -Baltasar Gracian

* * *

It hurts.

It hurts so much.

Fingers clenched tightly together, eyes squeezed shut, a single unwanted tear slid down the blond's tanned cheeks.

"S-Sasuke...," Naruto managed to grunt out, sweat breaking across his face. The window was closed and the sun was beating down harshly upon the window pane. It was a very hot day.

"I-It hurts." The blond male bit down hard on his lips. Opening his eyes, bright sky blue hues gazed pleadingly at the Uchiha before him. He blamed his action all on the heat. It was just so unbearably hot. "No more..." The words came out as a mere whisper though and the other male paid no heed to it.

"Come on, Naruto," the ebony haired male grunted back, feeling just as hot as his blond friend, a look of deep concentration on his face. "Just.. a.. little.. more."

"But it hurts!"

"Deal with it!"

"But—"

"No buts!"

"Ugh..." Naruto winced in pain.

"Che. Almost there..."

"Really?" Naruto's tone held a hint of hopefulness.

"Yes-- a little more-- ah- there!" There was a moment of silences before he spoke again. "I'm taking it out now, okay?" The blond nodded his head.

Slowly pulling it out, Sasuke let escaped an exhausted sigh before glancing up at Naruto. A smirk graced his lips as the Uchiha noted the pained look on Naruto's face ebbed away to reveal a look of relieved satisfaction. Lips parting to speak, Sasuke was cut short as a knock came from the door.

Sasuke frown at the interruption but said naught of it and instead pushed himself up off the floor of Naruto's apartment and made his way to the door. The knock coming again, Sasuke opened the door to reveal a blushing jounin.

"Hn?" A single brow rose as Sasuke gazed inquiringly at the other. The jounin seemed to shrivel under the Uchiha's hard stare. Placing a fist to his lips, the jounin coughed, his face darkening as he saw Naruto appearing behind Sasuke, head leaning over the Uchiha's shoulder as the blond peered out to see who it was.

Seeing the jounin, Naruto offered his trademark grin to the visitor and waved. Said jounin glance from Sasuke's stoic face to Naruto's cheerful one and then coughed again. An awkward silence ensued a moment before the jounin remembered why he had come.

"L-L-Lady T-Tsu-Tsunade wants to see you!" That said, the jounin immediately disappeared, leaving Naruto blinking in mild surprise and Sasuke with a curious look upon his face.

'What was that about?' both thought simultaneously. Naruto, oblivious that he was, inwardly shrugged and headed back inside so he could readied himself to go and see the Hokage. Sasuke, on the other hand, slowly closed the door but remain where he was, that look of concentration still upon his face before everything then dawn upon the Uchiha and a wide devilish like smirk appeared upon his lips.

Unfortunately, Naruto appeared before him then, jolting the Uchiha out of his thoughts. Sasuke cooled his feature so none of his thoughts were shown.

"Osh! Let's go Sasuke bastard!" the hyperactive blond exclaimed. Opening the door, he stepped out but stopped before he could take another and turned to give Sasuke a sheepish grin. "Um.. thanks for taking out that splinter for me." Said in a rush, Naruto flushed in embarrassment a moment before he then quickly turned away and left, not bothering at all to see if the Uchiha followed. He was, of course, following closely behind while that smirk from before had now returned.

Why was he smiling? Well, the Uchiha was in a very- **very** -happy mood today.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

The current Hokage of Konohagakure had been debating whether to sleep or drink her distill sake (of which was given by Shizune) when her attention was drawn by the clacking sound from behind her. She had ignored it at first but when it came again, her lips twitched in annoyances. She hated to be distracted after all. Then again, if whatever it was, was able to get the load of paperworks off her shoulders, she would gladly welcomed it. Slowly turning around in her blue chair, Tsunade turned to face the window behind her and was quite surprised to see an owl perched there. Growing rather curious, she stood and went to open the window. Watching the owl hopped inside and placing the envelope it carried down, the creature cooed, as if telling her to pick it up.

"Well," Tsunade began. "What do you have there?"

Reaching to pick it up, Tsunade's eyes widen in surprise as she witnessed the marvel that was happening before her. Across the rough parchment of the envelope, the foreign words that was there swam about in sea of green, rearranging itself a moment before it slowly settled and then completely stopped. The words before her were now readable.

**Ms. Tsunade, Fifth Hokage  
Uppermost floor of Hokage Tower  
Konohagakure no Sato  
Land of Fire**

'What the hell is this?' Tsunade thought, quite bewildered then as she returned her gaze to the owl.

Tsunade was surprised, yes, but she was also growing quite curious and as the look of wonder appeared upon her face, she gazed back to the envelope in hand and flipped it over to the other side. A large purple wax seal enclosed it. The pictures engraved there were very finely made, detailed in every aspect as she looked form the lion to the eagle to the badger and then to the snake. A shiver of apprehension ran down her body then as she studied the last creature and she wonder if mayhap that was a bad omen. The feeling lasting only a moment though, delicate fingers peeled back the seal to reveal a bundle of thick folded parchments inside. Pulling it out and opening it, she watched again as the words upon the paper began to move and rearranged itself into understandable kanjis.

She began to read...

_To the Fifth of Hokage of Konohagakure, Princess Tsunade- I apologize deeply for the suddenness of this letter but it is of dire urgency that I send this to you and ask for your help. I understand that you may now be feeling that of doubt, wondering whether to trust such a forebroding letter or not, but I do sincerely hope that when you finish reading this letter, you will take my words into considerations. The problem that is to be stated within this letter deals not with me alone but for you and your village as well. If that was not enough to get your attention then I know of not what else to say but only hope that you have yet to put this paper down._

_If you are reading this, then I see that you haven't. Good. I hope that such a sign is in my favor._

_Now, where to begin. Oh yes- I believe an introduction is very much so, needed._

_I am Albus Dumbledore, headmaster to a school known formally as Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Do not be in disbelief for I know that you are. Witches. Wizards. Magic. Existing? You are thinking 'Impossible!' no doubt but I can clearly say that it isn't so for we are people just like you and the concept of magic is no different than the chakra that you use. Magic is maybe weaker, I will undauntedly admit, but that is just how it is and I have no say in such worldly matters. My world is similar to yours as well. We, witches and wizard, live in concealment and although certain reasons are different, our wish to be undisturbed and to live in peace is the same. _

_Things that humans cannot explain, things that humans cannot fathom- those are the things that humans fear and so, we are force to become so. A life of secrecy is a hard one but none to hard to accept and manage._

_Ah, I believe that I have drown on enough of that. Such can be of mention later. I write now is of the situation that I am in._

_There is an evil among my people. A monster who has no bound and will kill any that gets in his way. Voldemort is his name. To be rid of such evil as he, it could be said to be a blessing. However, that is not what I have wish of. My proposition is for you to grant me your finest ninja in order to protect my school and to guard one of my student by the name of Harry Potter. In the plays of event that are to come, this young boy will plays an important role in the upcoming story and must be protected at all cost. In the sense of why I ask thus is that I have great trust for your people and also for the former Hokage, Sarutobi. A great man he was and a great friend as well. I grieve his untimely death._

_Now- of how my problems plays a role into your lives. It all comes down to a person going by the name of Orochimaru. This man has made known his presences and proves to be a great threat for the wizardry world as he has join force with the Dark Lord Voldemort. I sense an oncoming danger in the far distant and ever so slowly, this evil approaches, wishing to wreck destruction across the land. Since it is not in me to beg, I shall humbly wish instead that you take what you have read so far and truly consider the choices. That is all I have to say._

_If you choose to agree to this mission, the following papers enclosed within the envelope are further details of the mission along with other important information dealing with our society. Other necessity will arrive later on if you choose to accept.  
_

_I now await your reply. Please give it to Estrol, the owl, and she will deliver it to me._

**Yours sincerely,**

_Albus Dumbledore_

**Albus Dumbledore,  
Headmaster**

Tsunade did not know when she had sat down but she couldn't have cared much for it and was only glad that she was. Staring intently at the paper she held, she reread it again and again until each words were ingrained into her head. She felt confusion, amazement and anger boiling within her but calming herself, Tsunade knew she had to think this through thoroughly before making any decision.

A hidden society she knew not of. A world where magic exist, an entity that was similar to that of chakra. This confused and amazed her at the same time. However, it seem to be more of a wonder that the former Hokage had knowledge of these people yet told no one of it.

'Damn geezer. How could you keep such a thing from us...' Shaking her head, she placed the letter atop her desk and lean back into her chair. Bridging her fingers together, her eyes narrowed then as she remember another person that was mention within the message. _Orochimaru_. Many questions arose within her then and she knew that the only way she would get any answers for them was to accept this request. Mind made, she quickly pulled out a brand new scroll and pen and began writing her reply. Once done, she stamped it with her seal and rolled it up. Securing it with a string, Tsunade approached the large owl that was still there and placed it before the creature. As if knowing what to do, the owl, Estrol, jumped into the air and grabbed the scroll with her sharp talons and flew out the window. Tsunade watched until the creature was out of sight before turning away and sitting herself down once more.

"Shizune!" the Hokage called out and a woman with short black hair immediately appeared, the door to her office being thrown roughly opened. Tsunade sighed exasperatedly as she noted the frantic look upon the girl's face.

"What is it, Lady Tsunade? Is something the matter?"

"Calm down Shizune," she order the woman and sighed again as she kneaded a hand to her aching temple. She could surely feel a migraine coming. "I need you to get someone to bring me Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura. Now." Comprehending, the woman gave a curt nod of her head and quickly left, leaving the Hokage alone again.

Turning around in her blue chair, she turned to face the window and stare off into the distance.

"This has turned out to be one hell of a day...," the Fifth Hokage of Konohagakure, Princess Tsunade, muttered aloud and let out a weary sigh.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

Fifteen minutes later, Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura entered the room.

Sasuke was feeling- well, you really can't tell how he was feeling with his stoic face ever so emotionless as it was. Naruto, on the other hand, was grinning from ear to ear as he was excited. He knew, guessed anyway, that they were called here for a mission. It had been quite a while since all three of them had done a mission together as they all had their own priorities after all and thus the blond was really looking forward to this. Now, with Sakura, she look the same as she always did- prime and neat, body straight and looking very attentive.

"Good. You are all here," Tsunade said as she leaned forward in her chair and rested her arm atop her desk. "I'm guessing you've all figure already why you are here so I'll just get straight to business." Picking up a scroll that she had been writing on before the three arrived, she tossed it to Sasuke. Reflexively catching it, the Uchiha stared at it a moment before returning his gaze to the Hokage, a single brow rose as he gazed at her questioningly.

"Within are the detail of the mission that I am assigning you three. The mission itself can be rank as that of a C class mission as all you will be doing is acting as guards for a certain school and for a certain boy. However, as there will be a certain person involve within this mission, it can be upped to an A or S class at anytime." Gravely, Tsunade stare at them all, the seriousness in her tone left no room for any sort of objections or playful squabble of which Naruto would have usually done so right about now. The hyperactive ninja was, for the time being, being very attentive to the Hokage's words.

Leaning back into her chair, Tsunade crossed her arms loosely over her chest. Looking at each of their faces a moment longer and studying them all closely, she then continued, saying the one word- the one name- she had no wish of every saying again. It left a foul taste in her mouth.

"The man involve is Orochimaru." That one name alone had gotten all their attention more than anything she had just mention before. "If you wish to know more, read the scroll. You are now dismissed." The three bowed then and turned to leave. "Oh yes. I forgot to mention this," Tsunade said and they all stopped in their track but did not turn to face her. "Once you have read what is written within that scroll, you have a choice to either accept or reject this mission. I will not hold it against you if you do, but I commend that you think it over thoroughly before you make any major decision. This will not an ordinary mission after all." The three ninjas nodded their heads again before leaving the room.

Tsunade, alone once more, sighed heavily and couldn't help but wonder what their answer would be. If they chose to decline, she would have to find another three to take it instead. Somehow though, she felt that she already knew what their answer would be. She wouldn't have already sent her reply if she didn't. Shaking her head, her lips broke out into a weary smile.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

The former Team Seven were gather together at their old training ground. Naruto had found a nice tree to sit upon while Sasuke had sat himself beneath it. Sakura was beside him as she was peering over Sasuke's shoulder to gaze at the scroll that was opened before him, following along as the Uchiha read it aloud.

Their reaction were all very similar to that of Tsunade's. Curiosity mixed with wonder and amazement. Anger filled whatever gap that was left as the mention of Orochimaru came up. Having finished reading, Sasuke rolled the scroll back up and lean back against the tree, head tilted upward as he stare at Naruto who was looking done at him as well. As if able to understand each other without words, they both nodded their heads, seemingly coming to an agreement with one another on a matter that Sakura new nothing of. Are they planning to accept the mission?

Watching this exchange, Sakura could not help but feel a little resentment of it. Then again, she understood that the two had a bond with one another and she knew that she could never come between it. She would never understand it anyway, the friendship between two men and she really had no wish to know of it. She was a girl after all and she had her own priorities to deal with. Then again, they were her friends and Sakura would have love to know every once in a while what went on in their heads.

Watching them now though, Sakura could not help but think though of how amazing it was that the two males before her could even form such a close bond when in the past, the two had hated one another so much. You could suppose that the rivalry the two had played a major role in it all. Rivalry was a sort of acknowledgment, maybe? Acceptance of who they truly were and not of what they were? A Kyuubi vessel and the Uchiha heir? Sakura didn't know and that, in itself, annoyed her more than anything else. She had known the two the longest after all and she should have known all that there was to know about them.

Yet, many mystery are wrapped about them still.

At twenty, Naruto was quite the catch with his lithe and slender body and his long sun kissed locks that hung in a dishevel mess atop his head. However, Sakura did not know of what else to be said of him though. He has grown quite a bit and was not exactly the person she knew when they were all genins. Although there was still some aspect of that young boy within the other somewhere as Naruto was as hyperactive and rather unpredictable as ever, he has grown a more serious side to it all. She suppose that was because he was now a part of the ANBU operatives. The experiences gain had matured him but Sakura was glad though that Naruto could still be his playful self every now and then. It was refreshing, so to speak.

Sasuke, on the other hand, had not changed much- emotionally anyway. He was very much still that cold and emotionless person. If there were any changes, the feat were not hers but those of Naruto's. Less detach, he was, and on those really rare occasion, a smile could be seen on Sasuke's face. A rarity, but worth it as Sasuke was indeed a true beauty and said person knows it too but it is not like Sasuke loved having people tell such to his face. What sort of man would want to be called beautiful anyway? Well, at twenty-one in age, the lines of his face has become sharper, giving him a devilish look that was to die for. It was, really, as almost every girl in the village, from young to old, fawns over it still. Sakura had grown immune to it so it did not affect her and she did not care to be bothered by it. Old time crush do die away eventually after all.

Being part of the ANBU, a captain's rank at that, Sasuke was quite the deadly apparition as well. Dark, serious, and deadly, he was a force to be reckon with and such was quite fitting to his character.

'And look at me. I'm no longer the girl I was than either.' Yes. Sakura had change. As a fully establish Medic-nin, Sakura was quite the ninja that was on par, or mayhap even better, than Tsunade herself. She was no longer _useless_. There _was_ something that she could do and be proud of it.

Sitting back against the tree as well, Sakura sighed then as she pushed those sudden thoughts away. This was not the time to be reminiscing about the past but of what was right before them now.

"I think we should take it," the pink haired konoichi said then, a small and yet weary smile gracing her lips.

The two male turn to face her. "You think so?" Naruto was the first to speak, a hint of worry in his tone. He was actually taking this mission very seriously. He could not explain it but the more he thought of the mission, a ominous foreboding sense lingered about his thoughts.

"Yeah. It will be a new experience for us," she said with a light shrug of her shoulders. "I believe that there will be something we can learn from these so called witches and wizards." Her light tone took on a deeper and more serious overture. "We can't leave it alone anyway. _He_ is there after all."

Yes. _Him_. They all knew who '_he_' was.

_Orochimaru_.

They had to know. They had to find out why _he _was there.

The three looked at one another then and this time, all three simultaneously nodded their heads.

In agreement with one another, they stood and headed back towards the Hokage tower.

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TBC

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**Soifra's Ending Notes-**

The story has been edited as of **Apirl 10th, 2009**

About this chapter: Yes- it was somewhat lewd and I bet most of you were thinking perverted thoughts! If you did, then I succeeded!To straighten things out however- if some of you are wondering why Naruto was in such pain from just a splinter and of where said splinter was- I will explain as I know that some are thinking that Naruto should be use to pain as he is always on the 'receiving end of a variety of sharp, pointy weapons' (as stated by frustratedfruitloops).

My opinion or theory or whatever- I was thinking on how people do not notice pain when they are fighting. They tend to block the pain out and would only think on winning and surviving. The pain they receive in a fight is literally forgotten for to think of such in the midst of battle is foolish and will only bring about death. However- when you are home and doing nothing, your body, no matter how skilled you are, will not be as alert as it is when in combat and when hurt or injured, a person thought is solely focus on said pain and not on anything else. Thus the rather exaggerated pain that Naruto is experiencing.

Well- did you get all of that? If not- (n-n;) --yeah. Just forget it then.


	3. Chapter 2: So Long, Farewell

**Unseen Consequences**

C h a p t e r 2 – So Long, Farewell

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"There is a time for departure even when there is no certain place to go."_ -Tennessee Williams

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Lying atop his bed, stomach pressed to the mattress and elbows digging into the bed on either side of him, the blond propped his chin upon his folded hands while he continued to intently study the opened book before him. Blue optics were narrowed in scrutiny as he studied it, one moment growing annoyed and the next growing confused.

Naruto was currently reading one copy of the many books that had been sent to the Hokage explaining the history and other such likes of the school, Hogwarts: School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They were ordered to read and reread (that part mostly directed to Naruto in particular) until they understood everything there was to know of the unfamiliar world of magic. The book he was currently reading was on the specification of magic alone, explaining how it worked and its theories; how it originated and so forth and a bit of facts here and there on the things that magic can and cannot do. The book also explained that 'time and space matters in magic'. However- what this meant, Naruto hadn't a clue.

Magic or lack of it, is an inborn attribute as it is inherited. It is a natural force that surrounds a person, cloaked about the witch or wizard's body like that of a protective shield and when focus (with the use of a wand) the magic about them is concentrated into one certain point then refracts to where the user sends it. Magic, however, can be used unfocused wise as well as of which it can be done without the use of a wand. This, though, weakens the state of the intended magic as a wizard or witch is only at their best when using their own wand and not that of another.

The very concept of 'magic' was the complete opposite to that of chakra. That, in itself, was what really confused Naruto and he scoffed at the thought of how silly it was that these witches and wizards used 'twigs' as a sort of weapon to concentrate their 'magic'. He just didn't understand the foolishness of it all but he suppose that he, being an outsider, had no say in such matters.

Sighing and knowing that he was not the sort to actually get into such things as 'reading', the blond quickly skimmed through the pages, only every now and then stopping at places that caught his interest. Once done, he quickly move to another book. He repeated the process many times until he had finished all the books that were given to him. Thinking he had grasp enough knowledge of the wizardry world, Naruto felt as if his head was going to explode as he slammed closed the last book of which happen to be _Hogwarts: A History_.

There was just too much to take in and Naruto had wasted the entire night on just studying, alone, and that was something he rarely did. He wanted so badly to sleep now but he felt that if he were to close his eyes for just a second, everything he had learn so far would disappear by the time he reopened them and that was something he did not want happening.

Stifling a yawn, the blond turned his head sideways to gaze out the window located beside his bed. Dawn could be seen quickly approaching, the morning sun peeking over the horizon. Making a face and groaning, Naruto slowly flipped over to lie on his back and stared idly at the morbid white ceilings above. Unable to sleep and knowing it was two late to do so now anyway, he allowed his mind to drift, thinking of the mission and other things.

"One year, huh...," he muttered aloud and sighed loudly. They were to leave for their mission in two days but Naruto truly had no wish to be away from Konoha for such a long period of time. However, with Orochimaru playing a role in the mission, he knew there was no choice but for him and the others to accept. And beside, Naruto could well deal with anything if his friends were by his side. The thought bringing a small smile to his lips, the blond hopped out of bed thinking that he might as well get ready for the day. There was no point in sleeping when the sun was already visible in the morning sky after all.

"Maybe I'll go and see if the bastard is up yet?" Grinning, Naruto quickly showered and dressed in his most casual wear and went to do just that.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

Even though Uchiha Sasuke had spent almost the entire night going through the books that they were assigned to read and only had a hours worth of sleep, he was doing what he did everyday, following the usual routine he had long become accustomed to.

One, wake up before the dawn approaches. Check.

Two, go out for a jog. Check.

Three, shower and dress in clean attires. Check.

Four, eat a balance breakfast. Check.

And lastly, five, enjoy a nice cup of warm tea. It was what he was doing at that very moment but when that loud shout of his name came, Sasuke knew that, that, right there was the very much so unwanted number six of his daily routine- be bothered by the number one hyperactive ninja in Konoha.

"Oi, bastard?!"

Sasuke could hear the door to his house being slammed open. He sighed and wonder if maybe he will have to fix it, again, today.

"You up yet?!" came Naruto's voice and Sasuke could feel a vein throb at the side of his forehead.

"Naruto," said the Uchiha in a deadly calmed tone as he heard the shoji door that led to the veranda he was in being slid open behind him. "Who in their right mine would be able to remain asleep when you are shouting so?" It was a rhetorical question and he wasn't expecting an answer. The sound of Naruto's laughter could be heard as the blond then sat himself opposite Sasuke. Ignoring the other, Sasuke continued to drink his tea, finishing it completely before setting it down on the table before him. He then turned his attention to Naruto, annoyances clearly visible within his obsidian hues.

"What do you want?" he finally asked. Naruto only grinned in reply. Sasuke felt the urge to smack the stupid grin off the idiot's face but resisted. It was hard, but he managed. He instead poured himself another cup of tea.

"If you have nothing to say, leave," Sasuke ordered and took a sip out of his tea. Naruto pouted.

"Ah come on Sasuke," Naruto began in a whine-like tone. "Don't be so mean." He grinned. "Can't you just be happy that the great Uzumaki has graced you with his oh so wonderful presences?" Naruto frown at the bland look that was directed his way and feigned a hurt expression. "I am most definitely appalled by your insensitivity!"

The vein pulsing on the Uchiha's head seemed to grow and the corner of his right eye began to twitch. Through it all, Sasuke chose to ignore the blond still.

"Go away," was all he said. Naruto pouted again.

"I dun wanna."

"And why not?" he asked, sounding exasperated.

"Cause I'm hungry."

"What does you being hungry have anything to do with you not wanting to leave my home?" the Uchiha asked, finally gracing Naruto with his gaze again.

"Everything, duh!" Naruto said in a matter-of-fact tone and looked at Sasuke as if he was stupid.

Sasuke only allow a single brow to raise questioningly. Naruto broke out into an all out grin then.

"Feed me!"

"No." An immediate response. Naruto comically face-plated onto the table. Sasuke returned to drinking his tea.

"Why not?!" Naruto asked then, sounding very indignant and hurt as he righted himself.

"No reason."

"Come one! Please?"

"No."

Naruto heaved a heavy sigh.

"Fine."

What? Giving up already? This was unlike Naruto and Sasuke knew that something must be bothering the other and he had a feeling he knew what it was. Placing his empty tea cup down, he returned his attention back to the blond before him. From his drooping shoulders to his weary eyes, Sasuke could see how tired Naruto was looking today. It was an unusual sight as he was use to seeing the other so energetic and particularly be bouncing about the place. The image before him was unfitting and Sasuke did not like it at all. Why, he didn't know but he wasn't going to spend his time wondering on it though. Instinctively, all he wanted to do right now was cheer the blond up.

"Let's go," Sasuke said in a monotone voice and stood. Dusting himself off, he turned away and headed through the shoji door. Naruto had yet to move and was only gazing dumbly at the raven haired male. Seeing this from the corner of his vision, he exasperatedly sighed.

"Ichiraku. My treat." At those words, Naruto's eyes widen a moment in mild surprised before a grin broke out across his lips and he leapt up immediately to follow the other.

Thus began the day of how Sasuke ended up spending almost two thirds of his saving on ramen alone and it was all just to make a certain blue eyed blond happy.

Was it worth it?

Yes.

Why?

He didn't know but if he did, Sasuke sure as hell wasn't telling. Not at the moment at least.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

Sakura was amazed how fast the next two days quickly came and went and before she knew it, it was already that time. She couldn't also believe that all she had done was read.

'What a way to prepare for a mission,' Sakura thought dully but she had to admit that she did learn quite a lot about 'magic', Hogwarts, and of the infamous Harry Potter. He was quite the interesting character but as they had only received small tidbits of information on him, they would have to meet him and silently study him themselves to know and understand more of boy.

'That's going to be easy,' she thought and smiled. She was going to be posing as healer's assistance to a witch by the name of Poppy Pomfrey and that would give her free access about the school. As they were to go undercover and all, that was a plus on her part.

Gathering everything together of which included her medic and jounin attire, a few weapons and a couple of scrolls, she placed it all into a small green duffel bag and made ready to leave after checking herself before her bedroom mirror. Her pink hair that she had allowed to grow were braided on either side of her while her ninja headband was tired firmly in the place it always was, atop her head. As they were told to wear normal clothing's as to blend in with the new surroundings of 'England', she wore a simple pink wrapover with a knitted top beneath blue hip hugging jeans that showed off the contours of her hips and legs. A pair of open toed sandals finished it off. Grinning to herself and quite satisfied with it all, Sakura swung the duffel bag over her shoulder and left for the Hokage tower, the place they were to group up and recap on the mission before they were to leave.

Arriving at the Hokage tower, she was surprise to see that Sasuke and Naruto were already there. It took a moment for her to recognize them though as they were not in their usual wear and it was Naruto's outburst of hello that made her realized that it was them.

"Wow, Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed them. "You look-- different." Naruto grinned at her words, taking it as a compliment of which she had intended it to be. He was a sight after all with his fitting orange and blue sleeveless top and long knee length navy blue shorts. His blond hair seemed to be more tame now than it ever usually did. Sasuke was a sight as well and if Sakura was her usual fan girl self like in her genin days, she would have probably be drooling by now or squealing loudly at that. Wearing a black long sleeve shirt beneath a short sleeve one that accented the long dark cargo-like pants he wore, Sasuke looked-- well, Sakura did not feel like elaborating for she felt that if she did, she would indeed be drooling at that moment. The same for Naruto for the two were particularly on par with one another.

'Get it together Haruno. They are not two piece of juicy meat. They are your friends and no more,' she thought and inwardly shook her head and allowed her inner Sakura to smash her head repeatively. Placing a hand before her lips and softly coughing, she came to stand on the left side of Sasuke and Tsunade began her briefing.

"You are to meet with a man by the name of Severus Snape at a place known as the Leaky Cauldron. If you had read up on your books, you should know all about the place and the person as he is one of the teachers at the school you are to protect. You will also be using Floo Powder as a means of transportation and you should have read up on that as well." The Hokage gave a pointed glance to Naruto as she spoke thus and the boy manage well enough not to look indignant of it.

"The client," she continued, "has somehow temporary connected the Floo Network to our land but since a fireplace is not basically a common thing around here, I believe that any open fire would do." Taking out a pouch from her desk, she tossed it to the trio, Sasuke being the one to catch it. "If you will head to the roof, Shizune will have already created one." Taking it as a sign of dismissal, they three headed for the roof, Tsunade following as well.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

"Are you sure this will work?" Naruto asked, looking rather incredulous of the open fire before him.

"I think it should for I believe that the use of an actual fireplace is just for traditional sake," replied Sakura as she too gave the fire a rather dubious look as well.

Sasuke, on the other hand, only gave an apathetic 'hn' as a reply.

"Let's just get this over with," the male then said and adjusted the pack he had strapped to his back.

"But what if doesn't work?" Naruto protested and crossed his hands over his chest as he glared at the Uchiha.

Sasuke gave him a bland look. "Then it doesn't."

Naruto sighed. "That's not a very reassuring answer, bastard."

Sakura sighed as well. "Enough," she said and came to stand between the two. "We won't know unless we try so, like Sasuke said, let's just get this over with already." Sakura smiled then. "And if you two are too afraid to try, I'll go first."

Taking the pouch from Sasuke, she pulled it open and grabbed a handful of floo powder before tossing it back to the other. Tossing her handful of the powder into the makeshift fire, she watched as the fire became a bright emerald green and it double in size. As she had read up on it, she wasn't as surprise as she had thought she would be. Stepping in, she state the name of the desired destination loudly and clearly and was immediately then engulf by the flames before completely disappearing. The fire had now returned to normal.

Naruto, Sasuke, Shizune and Tsunade couldn't help but stared in amazement.

"So.. um.. whose next?" Naruto said, breaking the silences about them and everyone visibly sweat-dropped.

Sasuke, resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the blond, took a handful of powder and toss the pouch to Naruto.

"I'll go since you're to chicken to do it." Smirking, he quickly repeated what Sakura had done and vanish before he could hear any of Naruto's protest.

Fuming, the blond sighed and took his handful of the powder as well before handing the pouch to the Hokage.

He gave an ear splitting grin. "Well, old hag, I guess it's time for me to go as well." Tsunade's lips twitch in irritation at his words but said naught of it and only gave a nod of her head.

"Just make sure to come back alive and in one piece, you damn brat."

"No need to worry." Naruto said with a grin. "I won't be so stupid as to get myself killed. I have to come back and take my place as as the Sixth Hokage after all." Chuckling, he turned then to face the fire.

"Well- here goes." He tossed the powder into the fire and stepped in."The Leaky Cauldron!" he stated loudly and disappeared in a swirl of green flames.

* * *

TBC

* * *

**Soifra's Ending Notes-**

The story has been edited as of **Apirl 10th, 2009.**

About this chapter: I have never seen a fireplace in the Naruto Universe so- yeah. The concept of Floo Powder is completely different from the movies and the books as in the movie, they first stepped into an empty fireplace before dropping their handful of floo powder. In the book however, it is **completely **different as they would **first **toss a handful of floo powder into a **lit **fireplace and **then **step in it.

Yes. I did my studies. Now to those who complain of shortness- well sorry. I will try to make it longer. There are no guarantee however so if it isn't up to your standards, sorry.

For Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto's outfit- I have a picture drawn of what they look like. Take out all spaces and replace (dot) with (.) If it doesn't work, check profile for link.

http : // illlusional-decent (dot) deviantart (dot) com / art / Naruto-Hogwart-mission-dressup-118416911


	4. Chapter 3: Such Tedious Affairs

**Unseen Consequences**

C h a p t e r 3 – Such Tedious Affairs

_

* * *

"Any idiot can face a crisis- it's day to day living that wears you out."_ -Anton Chekhov

* * *

He awoke with a start, his green eyes open wide in fright but as he collected himself and gazed about the room, he knew that everything he had just seen was nothing but a dream. Or was it? Sitting up on his bed, Harry Potter wasn't sure but he hoped that it was for if what he had just witnessed within his dream were true, then he had an ominous feeling that danger lurk close by in the near future.

What he had seen could be described as-- pure undaunted horror. Something he never wish to remember or ever see again. Fortunately, the more he thought on it, the very image seemed to escaped him and it wasn't long before even a trace of it remained.

The feeling, however, stayed.

All he could remember now was the voice that was as cold as ice and the face of a traitor that he wish to never see again. They spoke of murder and planned another. There was another person there as well, someone foreign and one who spoke in a tongue he had never heard before. There was also two gigantic snakes. He could picture them before him even now, their long and scaly bodies slithering across the hardwood floor of the old mansion he had seen in his dream. As just the thought of those two snakes sent shivers down his spine, Harry closed his eyes and shook the thought away. It was an experience he never wished to live through again. Rubbing a hand to his temple, Harry pressed his fingers to the lightening bolts scar that adorned the middle of his forehead and winced at the pain that he could still feel there. The pain dulling, Harry reached over to his bedside table. Finding his glasses and placing them on, his room came clearly into focus.

Chaos ensued about the room as books were scattered about the floor, his hand-me-down clothes here and there and his overly large trunk laid open with its contents spilling out in the far corner. Heaving a sigh, Harry rubbed a hand to his head one last time before climbing out of his bed and made his way to his bedroom window. Staring out into the still darken sky, his mind continue to drift back to that dream and the pain of his scar.

_Why did it hurt?_ The only explanation he knew of would be that _he_ was nearby; he being _Voldemort_. However, if _he_ was there, Harry felt that he would have known, no doubt about it. So then why? The question alone was what worried him the most.

If only he had someone to asked of this, someone he could trust, someone he could seek guidance in.

The Dursley? As if and he was glad that they were still asleep. He had no wish to even be bothered by them.

His friends? Harry wearily smiled as he thought of Hermione's panicky face and tone and Ron's look of uncertainty. No. Harry did not wish to bother them either. So then who was left? Dumbledore? Harry hadn't a clue as to where the man was and the very thought seemed so unlikely to him at that moment.

Sirius? Yes! His god-father. Harry was surprised that he hadn't thought of it sooner. Harry supposed he was just not use to the fact that he actually had a godfather. They had only just meet two months ago after all. Back to the point at hand- what was he to write? Sighing and kneading a hand to his forehead, he searched for his quill, ink and a few clean sheets of parchment. Finding the needed items, he sat himself before his desk and began to write.

Harry kept it as simple as possible. That, in itself, was hard however. Going through one parchment after another, it wasn't until sunrise— with his lamp's light growing dim and his room glowing a beautiful shade of gold did he have the letter written the way he wanted.

Keeping it casual, he mentioned bits of happenings that went about the Dursley's house. One being the new diet his cousin was going on. It was terrible as the whole family was being dragged into it as well. Harry couldn't gave a rat's ass about it though. As he had mentioned his problem to his friends, Ron and Hermione and a few others had risen to the occasion and offered their help by sending food so that he would not waste away like a limbering stick. Harry was entirely thankful to them, as well as to the loose floorboard under his bed. It was a wonderful place to stash everything in.

Harry included a mention of his scar into his letter but wrote nothing of his dream. He did not want to sound worried nor did he want Sirius to be worried. That done, he folded it neatly and left it atop his desk, thinking he would send it when Hedwig returned as the snowy owl was off hunting.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

As the morning arises, Harry washed and dressed up before heading down for breakfast. It was uneventful, like usual. That is- until the sound of the doorbell was heard and Uncle Vernon went to get it. Everything went downhill from there and to the next day.

For Harry- it was probably the best thing that could have ever happened, but for his uncle— well, the overly large man could have seen better days. A letter had arrived the good ole natural Muggle way with only the unusual effect that said letter had too many stamps. As 'unusual' things were not in the way that Vernon Dursley liked, it bothered the man more than he had wished. Furthermore- what bothered Vernon Dursley also was the content of said letter.

_Quidditch?_

_World Cup?_

_Take the boy off his hands?_

Oddities and a blasphemy! It annoyed Vernon and his mustache bristled in his agitation. The only good thing out of the entire thing was that the boy would be out of his hands and he would have no need to see him for an entire year. Then again—it annoyed Vernon greatly that going was exactly what that boy wanted.

But as much as Vernon Dursley would have like to debate the issue and decline it, he had no choice but to say yes when the mention of a certain godfather came into the topic. Thus- everything concluded with a very happy fourteen year old wizard and a very irritated and fuming red faced Vernon.

The next day, a Sunday- brought on more troubles then Uncle Vernon had warranted. The _Weasley's_ were coming over. Now, if the Weasley's were the normal sort, the Dursley would have been happy to have guests over but as they were _that_ sort of people, he and his wife were not very happy at all. Even if they did bothered to dress in their finest wear, it wasn't for the occasion but more as to undermine their guests.

"It's already passed five and they are not here yet!" exclaimed Uncle Vernon. Aunt Petunia looked worried but was a bit irritated as well.

"Such discourtesy," she would mumbled and so forth on things she could be doing now then sit around and waiting for people she had no wish in meeting to show up.

"They are driving, of course?" bark Uncle Vernon to Harry who could only give him a thoughtful look. Harry wasn't sure but he hoped that they were. What other form of transportation could they take? A broom? It was unlikely that Mr. Weasley and his family would do such, especially in broad daylight and in a Muggle neighborhood.

Then what other way could they arrive? While Harry pondered on this, Uncle Vernon had entered the living room and it wasn't long when a loud scream exploded from the other side.

Left dumbfounded for a moment, he rushed inside and was surprised by the sounds that came from the boarded up fireplace. Could it be? From the voice he heard speaking on the other side, Harry knew it had to be them.

"They got here by Floo Powder," Harry tried to explained to his Uncle whose angered, red face resembled that of a ripe tomato. "They can travel through fire." By his Uncle's look, he knew the man hadn't heard or understood a thing he had just said. Not bothering to care about his Uncle's problem though, he turned his attention to the the blocked up fireplace. After a moment of setting things right and telling Mr. Weasley that he had come to the right place after all, a bout of chaos ensued afterward as the broads blocking the fireplace exploded opened and a mob of red heads entered the room.

While Harry's aunt and uncle were appalled by the sight, Harry happily greeted the Weasley family and it wasn't long after that he had his already packed trunk and Hedwig's cage brought downstairs from his room thanks to the Weasley twins, Fred and George, and was gone the same way they had come.

Harry couldn't be any happier to be staying at the Weasley's house. To be staying there for the rest of his summer holidays before school began was even better as Ron and Hermione was to be with him. It would seem that a lot of interesting things were to happen during his stay. One being the Quidditch World Cup. As this were to be Harry's first World Cup ever— he knew it was going to one hell of an experiences.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

Naruto felt sick and wondered if he would hurl on the spot but bracing himself and closing his eyes, he felt himself slowing down and his feet eventually touching true solid ground once more. Having not caught his footing correctly though, he swayed on the spot and he could feel himself falling forward. Before he hit the ground however, Naruto felt hands supporting him and he looked up to see who it was. By scent alone, Naruto already knew who the person was but it didn't hurt to make sure. Turning to face his savior, Naruto grinned sheepishly at the other, his cheeks tainted a light pink. It went unnoticed on his tan skin luckily.

"Arigotou Sasuke."

A 'hn' was all he got back before he was then release and the Uchiha turned away, his back to Naruto.

'What's his problem?' Naruto wondered and exasperatedly sighed. Dusting the dirt off his clothes, the blond ninja took the moment then to study his new surrounding. It was a dankly little place, or so it seemed anyway. The more he looked however—it appeared to be quite a cozy little place with its bar and private parlors. The stairs to the side seemed to lead up to the rooms above. Yes- it was a sort of inn after all. A few people loitered the corners of the pub. They were a scruffy sorts and he wondered if one of them were the person they were to met.

"Koreha... tadashiku More-Nabe ne?" Naruto asked, scratching a hand to the back of his head.

"Aa- tabun," came Sakura's uncertain voice. The pink hair konoichi glance about with a weary look of apprehension before turning to Sasuke who stood to her right. "Anataha, sono nin gakokoniiruto omoi masuka?" Sasuke only shrugged at the question but seemed to be wondering the same thing as well as said male scanned the room.

From description, the person they were to meet was a tall man with greasy-straight black hair who was to be decked out in long black robe (robes being a favorite for wizards). Such description could fit anyone within the pub or so Naruto thought when the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron opened and a man entered. From looks alone— from his long and crocked nose, thinned lips, and stern eyes - Naruto felt a dislike for him immediately but by intuition, he had a feeling that he was the person they were to meet. Walking over to Sasuke, he poked him in the shoulder.

"Oi! Sasuke!" he said in a hushed whisper. Said person turned to face Naruto, his brows narrowed into a scowl.

"Nande suka?"

Naruto pointed to the man who had just entered. As Sasuke gazed traveled over to the man, realization quickly dawn upon him and Sasuke gave a nod of his head before indicating the same to Sakura. The three debated it a moment before all three of them approached said man who happened to be glancing about the room. Noticing that they were heading his way, the man turned to face them, a look of disdain apparent on his face.

Coming to stand before him, Sakura stepped forward and offered the other a bow before speaking.

"Anataha Seburusu Suneipu desuka?"

The frown upon the man's face deepened and Sakura wondered if she had said something wrong.

"_Can't even speak our language. What an annoyances."_ The man softly tsked and shook his head before sighing.

The three blinked as the man spoke, understanding nothing that the man had just said. They had forgotten after all that they were in a different country and the language spoken was completely different to their own. Sakura had the modesty to lightly blushed as she realized this while Naruto and Sasuke could only give a shrug of their shoulders. It was a problem if they could not communicate with one another but what were _they _to do about it?

Their answer was given when the man before them reached into his robe and pulled out a small square box. Opening it up, he turned the box to face them. Three clip on earrings with a small round orb dangling at the end were within the box: one black, one green, and one blue. Were they to put them on? -the three wondered and as the man indicate that they should, they hesitantly complied. Sasuke clips on the black one to his right ear while Sakura picked up a green one and placed it on her right as well. The last, the blue, was clip to Naruto's left ear.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

When Snape had entered into the Leaky Cauldron and was expected to meet up with the guards that Professor Dumbledore had hired, he had expected to meet up with roughly clad men who looked like barbarians. What he got instead were two young men and one pink haired girl. Snape knew he should not judge one by appearances alone but he could not help the obvious dislike that he immediately form for them.

"_Anataha Seburusu Suneipu desuka?"_

Snape frown. What sort of language was this girl speaking?!

"Can't even speak our language. What an annoyances."

Sighing, Snape pulled out a box from under his robe and show the content to the three. The earrings within were created by Albus Dumbledore himself and were charmed to allow it's wearer to understand and speak the language being spoken to them. Complicated stuff as the object does not strictly translate one language to another. It only sends what is spoken to one part of the brain and sends it back out in a form that could be understood by either party. The only disadvantage being is that not every word that is spoken can be exchange as some has no English equivalent that can be replaced by the native language spoken.

"Can you understand me now?"

The three nodded, seemingly not at all surprise by what the given earrings could do. Well- the blond boy seemed to be a bit anyway and one could easily tell that he was by the grin that adorn his lips and the look of awe that was on his face but he seemed to be fighting down the urge to ask anything of it.

"Good." Snape closed the box and placed it back into his robe. Keeping his attention of the three, he silently study them as he gazed at them from head to toe.

"From first impression alone, I already have a dislike for you people but I do not think my opinion matters anyway," he said in a stiffly tone, regally ignoring the soft growl that came from our blond male, his dislike for the Snape obviously returning. The tall, dark haired male who stood next to the blond, scowled and seemed to wish to say something as well but held his opinions to himself.

"It would seem that you people at least have manners." The corner of his lips tilted into a small smile. It seemed more like a sneer than anything else. "If you haven't guessed already, I am Severus Snape, a professor at Hogwarts. You three, no doubt, must be the hired guards."

The three nodded their heads again.

"I see," was all he said and walked pass them, his robe flapping about in his wake. He begin talking as he walk. "Follow me. Our priorities must be spoken in privacy."

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura glanced at one another a moment before following suit. As Snape seemed to already have a room reserved, he immediately headed up the stairs and entered into one of the many rooms that was there. Following closely behind, they entered as well. It wasn't much of a room. It held two bed on either side of the room, a nightstand next to them and a small round table near the center of the room with four chairs surrounding it. To the side was a window and next to it, a long mirror. On the opposite was another door. The bathroom? Possibly.

"Sit yourself if you would," Snape said and sat himself down in one end of the table while Naruto and Sakura sat themselves opposite him. Sasuke chose to stand, leaning against the wall by the entrance. He wanted to be completely sure that no one was listening in. What security these wizards had seemed to be lacking to Sasuke's standards.

"Let's just get to the point," Sasuke spoke up then before Naruto or Sakura could. "As you can see- we are of the same thought as we have no liking for you and you for us. We should just get the introductions over quickly and get straight to the issue at hand. As we wish not to disclose our true names, you may call me Samuel."

During the two days back at Konohagakure, the three had had a long discussion of this. Giving these outsider their true names would be like revealing themselves before an enemy and they did not wish for such. After doing a thorough research on foreign names, this was what they had come up with.

"You may call me Sarah," Sakura said softly. Just as the other had been studying them, she was doing the same as well. Severus Snape was mentioned to be a rather powerful wizard but from what she could see of the man, he was nothing but a lanky adult who just had a rather large stick stuck high up his ass. His arrogance and snobbish demeanor was becoming rather of an annoyances. All she wanted to do was give him on good knock in the jaw. She would have been rather satisfied at this moment if she could see the man fly. Keeping the thought to herself though, she only kept a polite smile on her lips.

"And me- Nicolas!" Naruto pipped in then as he idly fingered his new earring. He was quite fascinated by them but had no wish to ask anything of it from the man before him. Naruto disliked the other after all. He did not want the man's attitude to bother him but it did take much effort to not explode on the other at that very moment. It was thanks to many years of training that he could endured the temptation and keep his thoughts to himself. He allowed the man's behavior to just _slip _for now and maybe- _maybe_- he'll explode later.

Snape, appearing to not really care of what they had to say, listened anyway. When Dumbledore had spoken of hiring Muggles as guards for the school to some of the staffs at Hogwarts of which included MacGonagall, Flitwick, Pomona Sprout, and including Snape himself, he had been the first to disagree with the decision. They were Muggles after all. What could they do?

No- they were not Muggles- Snape corrected himself. They were Ninjas. He wanted to scoff at the word but thought better of it. Dumbledore seemed to put much faith in them after all and Snape knew that whatever Snape says on the matter would be promptly ignored. Grudgingly, he had no choice but to comply to the Headmaster's wish. All that Snape could do now was just watch and see for his own on what these so called ninjas could do. Although being appointed as the one to meet up with them has already been a major let down for the potion master. The man, Samuel's, attitude, was beginning to irritate him. Out of the three, it seemed that only the girl seemed to be the most sensible of the lot.

"A pleasure..." Snape said in turn but did not seem to really mean it. "Now then, as you have said, we should get on with the matters at hand." From his robe, he pulled a few loose papers and some thickly folded parchment and a drawstring pouch that jangle about when moved. "Your orders," he began, "is to head to King Cross Station in two weeks time and board the Hogwarts Express that is located on Platform 9 ¾. A compartment has been reserved for you. Your _Ho-_..." Snape paused a moment, adjusting his tongue to the unfamiliar word. "Your _Hokage s_hould have already explained everything else to you."

"Yes," Sarah, or Sakura, spoke up then. "Our Hokage has mention that we are to do just as you have told us. We were to then be greeted by another Professor- Minerva MacGonagall- to then be situated within the school..."

"And further details were to be explained then," Nicolas, or Naruto, added.

Snape nodded his head at their world, albeit somewhat stiffly. They were well informed, he would give them credit for that at least. Spreading the parchments he had in hand on the table before him, he pulled out the thickly folded ones and slid it to the two before him.

"A small map of the London area and a map of Hogwart's castle is included here. Use it as you see fit." He then slid them three slips of paper. "Those are the train tickets." And then he tossed them the pouch of which Naruto easily caught with one hand. "Inside are some moneys."

Snape then stood. Sakura and Naruto stood as well.

"This is basically all I am to do for you three. As your mission does not start for two weeks, it would be wise to get yourself situated here within the Leaky Cauldron as well as Diagon Alley. Expenses here has been paid for already." Straightening, he brushed the invisible dust from his robe and headed for the door. Opening it, he had one foot out before pausing. Gazing from his peripheral vision, Snape gave the man dubbed Samuel (Sasuke) a hard stare a moment before turning his attention away and speaking.

"To not look out of place, I suggest you acquire some wizardry clothing and most importantly, a wand." With that, Severus Snape left the room.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

After the door was promptly closed, silenced ensued about the room. It took a moment before Naruto exploded.

"Argh!" the blond exclaimed. "That man was such an ass!" Sitting back into his chair with a slump, he balanced his chair on its two hind legs and tilted his head over the back of the chair to stare at Sasuke who was still leaning against the wall next to the door.

"What did you think of him Sasuke?"

Taking that moment to push himself off the wall, he head over to the window to glance out. Many people loitered the street of London. His thoughts seemed to be far away- distracted by another thought that had nothing to do with what they were speaking of at the moment. Neither Sakura or Naruto voice their opinion on this however.

"That man, Severus Snape, is of no consequential matter that we need to worry of." Sasuke shook his head before turning to face his companion. "He does not appear to a threat or anything and from what I have read of him, he is Dumbledore's most trusted man." Sasuke's words were final and thus, they spoke no more on the topic of Snape. "What we need now is to get settle in. What do you suggest we do?" he asked then, glancing from Sakura's face to Naruto's.

Tipping his chair back into its place on the floor, Naruto lean forward upon the table and offered a huge grin. "I'm hungry! Lets get ramen!"

"I don't think they'll have ramen here Naruto," Sakura said and wearily sighed as Naruto's face paled at her words.

"What do you mean no ramen?! Everywhere should have ramen. It's a blasphemy to not have ramen!" Eyes wide, Naruto nodded sagely at his words. "It's a crime I tell you!"

Sakura could feel the vein in her hand throbbed as she balled it into a fist. The corner of her eyes began to twitch in her annoyances at her blond teammate and had the urge to knock him upside the head. She did not resist though and did indeed, knock him upside the head.

"Ooouch! Come on Sakura!" Naruto whined. "Why did you do that for?" He pouted and looked up at her a wounded puppy dog look. Such a look was hard to resist but she manage well enough. She had long come to term with herself that she had an aversion to men.

"Really Naruto. Can't you think of anything else beside ramen?"

"But I'm hungry!" Making a face, he pouted again before turning said puppy dog looks toward Sasuke who had been trying to ignore his two teammates. Be it that it was good to see Naruto his cheerful self again, Sasuke had no wish to fall for one of Naruto's childish acts.

Glancing at the blond from the corner of his vision, he inwardly groan as he was caught by his puppy looks.

'Damn Naruto and his effects on me,' Sasuke cursed and sighed. He then coughed and cleared his throat.

"We could always go and see." He shrugged his shoulders, pretending to not care and to not have notice anything about the other. "Beside, I _am _hungry as well." He wasn't but his words seemed to make the blond happy. Naruto jumped up in excitement while Sakura only sighed and push her bangs away from her face to tuck behind her ear.

"Fine. You two can go. I want to do a bit more of reading here and mayhap study these maps," said Sakura. She then pointed a hand to Sasuke. "You, mister, better keep an eye on him though."

Sasuke raised a brow at her words but noticing her narrowed eyes, Sasuke gave a nod of his head.

"And you," she said, turning to the blond beside her. "Stay out of trouble. Remember Naruto. This is not Konoha. Be careful in what you say and do." Naruto pouted but nodded his head nonetheless and made his way to Sasuke, grabbed him by the hand, and quickly dragged him out of the room. The door closed with a thump behind them.

For a moment, Sakura gazed at the closed door before sitting herself back down upon the chair with a long sigh. Sitting sideways, she had one elbow propped upon the table and her cheek rested upon her open palm.

"Really—," she grumbled and shook her head. "Those two..."

* * *

TBC

**

* * *

**

**Soifra's Ending Notes **- Translation Note & Et cetera.:

"Arigotou Sasuke." --  
(**Thanks Sasuke**)

"Koreha... tadashiku More-Nabe, ne?" --  
(**This is the leaky cauldron, right?**)

"Aa...tabun," --  
(**Yeah...probably,**)

"Anataha, sono nin gakokoniiruto omoi masuka?" --  
(**Do you think that person is here?**)

"Oi.. Sasuke!" --  
(**Hey.. Sasuke**)

"Nande suka?" --  
(**What is it?**)

"Anataha Seburusu Suneipu desuka?" --  
(**Are you Severus Snape?**)

-

**Saber**, **Scarletta**, and **Nicolas **are the original names I had given them but I changed it to **Samuel**, **Sarah**, and** Nicolas**.

----- and yes- the color of their earrings are very obvious. n-n;


	5. Chapter 4: The Mysteries of Wands

**Unseen Consequences**

C h a p t e r 4 – The Mysteries of Wands

* * *

"_A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal."_ -Oscar Wilde

* * *

Naruto held tightly onto Sasuke's hand as he dragged the rather willing Uchiha down the stairs of the Leaky Cauldron. There was a light spring to Naruto's step and Sasuke felt that if his blond friend wasn't restraining himself, Naruto would have been bouncing about the room in all his pent up excitement. It would seem that the matter of Severus Snape was already done and over with for Naruto. Sasuke, on the other hand, wasn't completely so, his mind drifting back to their rather brief talk they had had with the greasy haired wizard. The way he spoke, his attitude, his posture- Severus Snape seemed to be a rather foreboding man. Behind his stern exterior, Sasuke knew, felt, that there was something more to him than meets the eye. Whichever it was though, he could not yet grasp onto it at the moment and the thought seemed to escaped him as he found that they had reached the bottom of the stairs. Turning his attention to the blond before him, he glanced down to their linked hands and loudly cleared his throat. His cheeks, pale as they were, turned a very light shade of pink but he quickly willed it away.

"You can let go now," Sasuke said in a cool tone, tuning his face to express an aloof expression. He did not wish to appear affected by just a simple touch.

Naruto jumped at the sound of Sasuke's voice as he had a moment there forgotten he had brought the other along. He, as well, was deep into his own thoughts, his excitement almost bubbling over as he wondered what they should go and do first. Actually—the first order of business had already been decided. All that Naruto needed to do now was find himself a place that sold ramen. Quickly letting go of Sasuke's hand, Naruto turned to face his friend and chuckled sheepishly whilst rubbing the back of his neck.

"Sorry." Naruto grinned. Having the decency to blush as well, he continued, "I'm just very excited. This place is _so _interesting! We really got to check the place out Sasuke. Well, after we eat anyway." Clasping his hand behind hisneck,he glance about the small pub. "I wonder if they have any ramen here..." Naruto's face took on a dreamy look and he closed his eye, picturing a prefect bowl of Ichiraku's ramen before him. "Ah- I can imagine one now. The steamy aroma of miso soup, the taste of the noodles, and the sound of me slurping it all up. Hmm..."

Sasuke blinked and watch in bemusement of the others antic.

"You're drooling moron," Sasuke stated and shook his head in slight amusement as he watch Naruto jerk out of his thoughts and wiped a hand across his lips.

"Don't call me that and I can't help it!" Naruto exclaimed, cheeks puffed out in a pout. "I'm _hungry_." Narpto was whining now and Sasuke knew that if they did not find any ramen soon, he was going to have a very troublesome blond to deal with.

"Yeah, I heard you the first time." Sasuke resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Lets just ask the man behind the counter over there if they serve ramen here." Sasuke nodded his head towards a balding man behind the counter. He was currently cleaning out a cup with a yellow cloth.

Naruto offered his usual goofy grin and the two made their way to the man. Before Sasuke could get his attention, Naruto had already spoken up, his loud tone catching the attention of the few people that was within the pub. Sasuke's sighed and decided to remain quiet.

"Hey, hey! Old man!" Naruto bounced up and leaned forward upon the counter. The man turned to face them, a curious expression on his face and he seemed to also look somewhat offended by the 'old man' comment but chose to ignore it.

"Yes?" he asked. "May I help you?"

"Yup! You sure can!" Naruto stated with a bright smile. "I want something to eat!"

The old man seemed to brighten at his words.

"You are, are you?" Placing his cup down, he began wiping his hands with the cloth. "What would you like then?"

"Ramen!"

Quite taken aback by the abrupt answer, the old man blinked before offering a gapped tooth grin.

"Ramen you say? Hm..." The man's face turned thoughtful and he began muttering the word ramen over and over like that of a mantra before realization dawn upon him. "Ah yes! Ramen. We have that." He nodded his head and Naruto perked up in excitement. "Not before though but I picked it up few things when some Muggle-born witch came in here some years ago mentioning of it. Only one flavor as we don't usually have people asking for it. Not common around here ya know." Waving a hand, he usher Naruto to sit. "Sit sit. Go on. I'll be right with you then with your meal." He then turned to Sasuke. "And you boy? Would you like anything? No? Oh well then." With that, he headed into the back, shouting someone's name or another to get the fire working, vegetable chopping, and food a-cooking.

"Well," Naruto said after having taken a seat upon a bench before a long wooden table. He was looking quite bewildered and yet excited at the same time. "That was interesting."

Sasuke nodded his head in agreement and he sat himself opposite Naruto.

A few moments later, the man returned with a tray in hand and a bowl of ramen and chopstick atop it. He placed the bowl before Naruto and tucked the empty tray between his arm. The man rubbed his hands together and gaze eagerly at Naruto's face.

"There you go!"

Naruto gazed down at the steaming bowl before him. To say that it was—different – would have been an understatement but by the aroma, it smelled good nonetheless. Licking his lips, he picked up his already broken apart chopsticks and put his hands together. Muttering a soft "_Ikidakimasu_," he dug in, quite unperturbed by the hotness.

From the other side, Sasuke watch his blond friend take a small bite before he began to gulf it down. In seconds, or so it felt, Naruto had slurped up the last piece of noodles and was draining the bowl of it's liquids. He then placed it down with a thunk on the wooden table and let out a happy sigh.

The man had yet to leave (he didn't have time to really) and was currently starring at the blond in amazement but came out of his daze when addressed by said blond.

"Old man!" His face was an euphoric vision of pure delight. "That was good! Another please!"

Sasuke sighed and shook his head. He knew this was going to happen. Just give him a taste of his favorite food and he come begging for more. So typical of Naruto. Well—Naruto was happy and Sasuke liked a happy Naruto and thus said nothing on the matter. The old man seemed to be happy as well.

"Enough with the 'old man'," he stated merrily. "The names Tom, the bartender here. Now, if you'll wait here a moment, I'll bring you another bowl."

By the next fifteen minutes or so, Naruto had manage to finish up completely four bowls of ramen and was now currently working on his fifth one. It was amazing, in Sasuke's opinion, that the other didn't get fat over it all. The image of a fat and Chouji-like Naruto almost made his choke upon the water he had asked for a while ago and was currently drinking down.

"I think you've had enough Naruto," Sasuke said, finally voicing himself as he leaned forward on the table.

Naruto peeked over the top of his bowl and Sasuke could see the grin in his eyes. Finishing it up, Naruto stacked it atop the other four bowls in front of him. Grinning still, Naruto licked his lips.

Something clicked within the Uchiha's head at that moment as he watched but it was soon pushed into the far recess of his brain and thus not mentioned.

"Fine. I'm done anyway." Naruto patted his full stomach and grinned. "It wasn't Ichiraku's ramen, but it was still good!"

Tom appeared at his side just as he had said those words.

"Done, sir?"

Naruto nodded his head.

"Ready to pay then, sir?" Tom asked and Naruto nodded his head again.

Tom calculated it in his head a moment before speaking. "That'll be three galleons and two knuts." Galleons and knuts? It took him a moment to realize that the currency here was just as different as the language spoken.

Tom held out a hand to Naruto and Naruto glanced to Sasuke. Sasuke glanced back.

"Why are you looking at me? I thought you had the money." Sasuke scoffed and glanced off to the side.

"Me? I thought you ha— Oh." Naruto sheepishly chuckled and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah. I put it down on the table next to Sakura. Heh. Funny that."

Tom was looking now from one face to the other.

"Don't tell you plan to not pay. Oh I can't have that. This is a working establishment here ya know." Tom was looking rather offended now for here he thought that he had found himself a good decent customer.

"Eh heh. We have money. It's just that we don't have it with us." Looking to Sasuke, Naruto offered a pleading look that said, 'help me' all over.

Sasuke in turn gave him one that said, 'Your problem, not mind'. It was too funny after all and he wanted to see how Naruto planned on getting out of this one.

Looking resentfully at Sasuke, Naruto sighed.

"Well," Tom said. "Are you goin' t'pay or not?"

"If you'll just let me go and get it I can pay," Naruto began again, trying his best to explain his situation, but before he could continue, a familiar voice spoke from behind him.

"I'll pay for them." Tom, Sasuke and Naruto turned to attention at the person who had spoken.

"Sakura!" exclaimed Naruto, happy to see his pink hair friend coming down the stairs and he bounded off his seat as she came near them. Ready to 'glomp' his savior, he was immediately stop by a hard smack to the head (of which caused him fall hard upon his rear, moaning in pain, and rubbing a hand to the new bruise upon his head) and Sakura promptly walked passed him and towards the bartender. She offered a bow in apology.

"Forgive my friend sir. He was born without manners and his genes filled with nothing but idiocy," she said in all seriousness. A polite smile upon her lips, she reached behind her into the round pouch she had there and pulled out the familiar drawstring bag. "Now—how much was it again?"

There was a twinkle in the man's eyes now. He appeared quite amused by the scene before him.

"Three galleons and two knuts, young lady and tis no problem at all."

"Now that we have money, it's no problem," grumbled the blond but it went unheard by the old man. Sakura, however, turned to give Naruto a cold glare that said 'shut up or else' before returning her attention to the bartender. Naruto's mouth immediately clampped shut.

Tom held out his hand and Sakura place the right amount into his palm. She was really glad that she had done her studies or else she wouldn't have known what the hell a galleon or a knut was.

"Thanks for doing business. Do come again," Tom said and went back to stand behind his counter.

Sakura took that moment then to glare at her two teammates. Sasuke cared only to give a look of indifference, his face particularly saying 'I have nothing to do with this' while Naruto (currently still rubbing at his bruised head) gave a hurt and rather indignant expression.

Sakura returned each expression with one of her own. They pretend to ignore her though and glanced innocently off to the side.

"Really, you two," she said in an exasperated tone, her arms raised in the air in defeat before sitting down at the table. Naruto, finally getting up, came to sit down beside her. Turning her gaze to the blond, she opened her lips to speak but stopped as instead her eyes narrowed as something seemed to have caught her attention.

"What?" Naruto asked, growing uncomfortable by her stare. "What is it? If you plan on hitting me again, please--" He shook his head. "_Don't_.

Sakura rolled her eyes and ignored the last comment. "It's nothing but," she said then and pointed to his ear, "your earring- it changed color." Her tone holding a hint of wonder, she leaned forward to peer at it closer.

Naruto's eyes widening at her word, he reached up to touch it. "Are you sure?" he asked, fingering the jewel. Sasuke, growing quite interested as well, lean slightly forward from where he sat opposite them.

"Of course I'm sure. I'm not blind, Naruto. It's like a greenish blue color now. Amazing." She then turned to face Sasuke who was staring intently at Naruto with a strange expression upon his own. She rolled her eyes at the look upon the Uchiha's face but mentioned nothing of it. "And yours as well, Sasuke," she stated, bringing the Uchiha's attention upon her and had to fight down the urge to laugh as she noted the Uchiha's flush face. Yes, Sakura had caught Sasuke staring at Naruto. And it wasn't at his earring either. "It's now a silver gray—almost white."

Sasuke cleared his throat, choosing to ignore Sakura's expression and contemplated this discovery a moment before speaking.

"Yours is looking rather blueish, Sakura," he pointed out to her. "Anyway—I do not think the color has any significance. It doesn't appear to anyway and could be just there for decorative purposes."

Naruto leaned forward, both elbows propped on the table and his chin upon his palms.

"Kinda interesting though, don't you think. But I guess we shouldn't be so bothered about it." Naruto grinned. "As it allows us to speak their language, I think that's all we should worry about for now and even if it is something, we can always ask our client about it when we meet him face to face."

Sakura looked somewhat skeptical but gave a shrug of her shoulders.

"I suppose..." she said and they all left it at that.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

Diagon Alley, after being showed the way thanks to Tom, was a very—very– interesting looking place. Naruto was amaze by it all and had trouble keeping his eyes from roaming all over the place. When at first he had accepted the mission, he had not thought it to be this exciting. From what he has seen so far however, everything was just so completely different here in London. 'Maybe,' Naruto thought, 'magic had its usefulness after all.'

With Sasuke and Sakura on either side of him as they had gather it would be best to explore the place together, Naruto grabbed both their hands into his own and pulled them roughly down the mildly busy cobblestone trail of Diagon Alley. There were not many people about and he could only guess that it had something to do with that Quidditch World Cup he had heard some people talking about back at the Leaky Cauldron. Games played on broomsticks— Naruto wished he could have seen it. To bad they didn't have tickets and they knew of not of how to get there.

Being in Diagon Alley seemed to take his mind off of it though and Naruto happily dragged his teammates down the street. He practically ignored their grunts of protest.

"Stop pulling Naruto," Sakura grumbled and Sasuke gave a stone cold look in agreement. It look any of his many other cold expression so Naruto couldn't really tell what the Uchiha was thinking.

"But I want to see everything before the day is over." Stopping, he let go of their hands and turned to face them, eyes alighted with wonder. "Everything looks so cool and different and remember what that crooked nose man (referring to Snape) said? He said we should get some wizardry clothings and wands." Naruto grinned. "I really don't care for new clothings but I want to check up on these wands thing that these wizards have. I mean, come on! What's so cool about them? I really want to know so--" turning back around, he grabbed both of their hands again and began roughly dragging them once more. "Osha! Let's go find a wand shop!!"

Sasuke sighed and Sakura rubbed her free hand to her forehead. Stupid oncoming headache.

"Do you even know where a wand shop is?" Sasuke asked in a deadpanned tone of voice.

Naruto decided then to come to an abrupt stop and the two being dragged almost collided into his back.

"What is it _now_?" Sakura asked, growing quite annoyed of the blond's antic

Naruto glanced behind him and chuckled.

"Eh heheh. Where was the wand shop again?"

Sasuke and Sakura sweat-dropped.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

Ollivander's was the best wand shop around, or so stated by Sakura. She had done her reading after all.

Standing before the small and rather shabby looking building, the three looked at one another.

"Do you think we should go in?" Naruto hesitantly asked.

Sakura rolled her eyes while Sasuke sighed.

"You asked that _now_?" she asked, exasperated and decided to ignore him. "Anyway- from what I've read, the only one who usually get their wands are kids who are just coming into their magical powers. Eleven years old, I believe. And some others who happens to have broken their wands." She turned and eyed the wand shop wearily before bringing her attention back to the others. "I suppose we could just go in and just say that we broke our wands but I guess that would appear suspicious if we did that and I think it would look even more odder if three grown-ups like us, foreigners at that, were to just enter and demand a new wand." She glanced to Sasuke. "Do you think we should henge ourselves?"

"That seems to be the likeliest answer," Sasuke softly remarked, seeming to contemplate the issue. "Naruto?" Sasuke looked at him to see what he thought on the matter.

"Henge?" Naruto shrugged his shoulders and gave a broad grin. "Sounds fun."

"Geeze, don't just agree, Naruto." Sakura glared at her blond friend, hands upon her hips. "At least think about it for a moment." Naruto's innocent expression was beginning to annoy her. "Whatever. Let's just do it then."

All agreeing, they glanced about them for a moment to make sure that no one was around before stepping into the alley between Ollivander's and the second hand robe shop that was next to it. Preforming the right hand signals that was then followed by a poof of smoke, our three ninja exited the alley way. Not much had change except the fact that they now looked like a younger versions of their older selves. Out in the open they examine one another.

"Oh-- wow." Sakura laughed as she glanced at Naruto in his eleven year old henge. "I haven't seen you look like that in—ages!"

Naruto laughed as well and mentioned the same for her and Sasuke only gave them his well known 'hn'. After a moment of examining one another, they then entered the wand shop. The sound of a tinkling bell could be heard from somewhere within the shop as the door opened and closed behind them. It was a small place, the front part of the room holding a counter that separated the front from the back and a small spindly chair in the far corner of the room. Gazing ahead however, it was hard to take their eyes away from the towering rolls of boxes that align the back room that seemed to stretched endlessly on.

"Good afternoon," said a soft and rather aged voice that they knew immediately to belong to an old man. Said person appeared then before them, his silvery eyes shining eerily through the gloom of the shop.

"Hello," the three said simultaneously and gazed up at him. It was a strange feeling, having to look up at another. After all, they hadn't been at a child's height for quite a long while now.

"Ah—quite the new faces here. Faces I have never seen before." The man gave a ghost of a smile and walked behind his counter. "I would know," he continued to talk, "for I remember every wand I sold and every face I sold them to." The statement alone made all three ninjas glad that they had decided to henge themselves after all.

The old man began to dig about the things on the counter and returned to stand before them with a tape measurer in hand. "Now then, whose to go first?" Sasuke and Sakura took a step back while the oblivious Naruto was left standing before them.

"You first then Mr..." Noticing just then that he was all alone, he threw a glare behind him before offering his name.

"Na..I mean, Nicolas."

"Mr. Nicolas. Nice name, nice name," Mr. Ollivander mumble, noticing not his mishap at all. "Give me your wand arm. Come on now, hurry it up."

Naruto wondered what he meant by wand arm and suppose the man meant the arm he wrote with. Raising his right arm, the man grabbed it and begin measuring it with the tape and Naruto only realized when Mr. Ollivander walked away that the tape measurer was moving all by itself. Eyes widen, he watched as it measured him all around. From the length of his nostrils to the width of his head. A strange thing it was and Naruto became quite transfixed by it and was rather disappointed that it stop when Mr. Ollivander, who was frittering around the back, ordered it to.

"Let see now... yes- this seems like a good one," Naruto could hear the man mumbled as Mr. Ollivander pulled down many boxes from the stacks in the back before bringing them to Naruto. Opening one, the old man took out a long wooden stick and handed it to him. "Okay. Lets give this a try. Vine-wood and phoenix feather. Nine and a half inches. Very flexible. Hold it and give it a wave."

Feeling idiotic even though it was something Naruto was use to feeling, did as he was told while Sasuke and Sakura watched aptly from behind him. To their disappointment, nothing happened. They had all wondered before coming here if their chakra had any effect upon these magical wands. It would seem that it didn't—or so they thought anyway.

"This one then," Mr. Ollivander said as he replaced the wand with another. "Reed-wood and dragon heartstring. Ten inches. Very Sturdy this one. Give it a try," Mr. Ollivander urged Naruto but before he could, it exploded on him, smoke coming off the end of the stick while his face were blacken in soots. All three ninja stared intently at the wand in Naruto's hand. It would seems that chakra did have some affects on wands after all but it would also seem that Naruto's chakra did not work well with this wand in particular.

The sound of a muffled laugher (Sakura) was heard behind him and Naruto had to fight down a retort for just then, another wand was given to him. It was becoming rather tiresome now to have to wave his hand foolishly about but he went along with it nonetheless as he was also interested to see if anything were to happen again.

Before the old man could tell him what to do, he gave the new wand a wave and closed his eyes as he braced himself for another explosion. When naught happened though, he slowly peek them open and was surprise to see that at the tip the wand, a red orange spark that turned to a fog like substance flowed from it and surrounded Naruto like a comfortable second skin. Before he could get a grasp upon it though, it disappeared back into the wand. A strange and yet familiar feeling settled over him.

Naruto looked questioningly up at Mr. Ollivander who had a look of appreciation in his eyes.

"Ah- quite a strange reaction but wonderful nonetheless." Mr. Ollivander smiled. "A good wand that one, Mr. Nicolas. Ivy-wood and with a core of a phoenix feature, ten inches. Great for casting quick spells. Now, seven galleons please."

As Naruto seemed to be too dumbfounded to say anything, Sakura stepped forward with the drawstring bag and offered the needed coins. Sakura then took that time also to pull Naruto back and sat him down upon the spindly chair. Totally engross in his wand, he had not notice anything at all and both Sakura and Sasuke gazed at him worriedly. Before either could ask though, Mr. Ollivander spoke.

"Now then, whose next?"

"I am." Sakura said with a raised hand and stepped forward, thinking she'll question Naruto about it when they returned to their room at the Leaky Cauldron. Sasuke thought the same as well.

"And who would you would be dear?" Mr. Ollivander said kindly.

"Sarah."

"Ah- Miss Sarah—lets get started then." She went through the same progress as Naruto but had the luck of getting her wand upon the second try. It was made from an alder-tree and unicorn tail hair, nine inches. Great for transfiguration, or so Mr. Ollivander had said. It gave off an array of bright colored sparks that made her think of fireworks and the longer she held it, she felt like she understood then what Naruto was feeling. It felt like the wood was made for her and her alone. It belonged to her and no one else could have it and for some unknown reason, she also felt that her chakra was slightly more powerful than what it was before. Thinking back on what she had read on wandlore and wand magic, it was said that a person's magical power increases when using a wand. How was it possible though? What she had was not magic but chakra. Was the concept of both similar then and could be passed off as the same thing? Magic being the focus kind while chakra was the unfocused? Sakura knew she would have to ponder more on this later. Paying the man seven galleons, she went to stand beside Naruto.

Sasuke, the last of the group, was quite unable to find the words he wished to express. His two friends were acting very strange and he hadn't a clue why. What was so interesting about this wand? Was it not just a _stick_? Sasuke knew it wasn't as he too had read up on the properties of wands but he was having a hard time in believing that these _sticks _were as fascinating as Sakura and Naruto was making it appear to be.

As the old man urge him forward, he gave him a cold, hard stare and Sasuke was a bit happy to see that Mr. Ollivander hesitated a moment before speaking.

"Well, Mr.."

"Samuel." Sasuke provide and Mr. Ollivander smiled despite Sasuke's tone of voice.

"Alright Mr. Samuel. Hold out your wand arm and let me get a good measure of you."

It was a tedious process and he wondered what significance measuring his arms had to do with getting a wand. As it began to measure him all on its own and Mr. Ollivander was rummaging in the back, Sasuke wished he had the Huuga's Byakugan. He wanted to see what allowed it to move so freely. His own sharingan appeared quite useless at the moment. After a moment of silently waiting, the man returned with a handful of boxes.

"You are quite the complex one," Mr. Ollivander wearily smiled and Sasuke wondered how the old man could have known that when all he had done was measure his arm and every other part of his body. Before he could ask, Mr. Ollivander handed him a wand and Sasuke decuded to keep the thought to himself. "Try this for starter."

Sasuke had barely even touched it and the man had yet to even explain the wands' properties when it was immediately snatch away and replaced by another. Although this time he was able to touch it, it was soon enough snatched and replaced again as well.

"Holly, phoenix feature, nine and half inches," the man said and Sasuke gave it a wave. It blasted a hole in the wall of which brought Sakura and Naruto out of their daze as they now had their attention fully on Sasuke and Mr. Ollivander. Their eyes were wide in surprise.

Sasuke stared at the hole with quite a startled expression but schooled it back to normal before turning his attention back to the man before him.

"Definitely—most definitely not it." Mr. Ollivander muttered and quickly pulled it away. He then pulled open the last box he had brought forth. "Ten inches, this one is and was made from a yew tree with a dragon heartstring as its core." He placed it in Sasuke's hand. "Give it a flick." And he did.

It glowed a moment before sending out a small line of fire that dances upon the tip of his wand. Sasuke felt power emitting from his hand and it felt as if it flowed from somewhere deep within him and into the wand. 'Was this what Sakura and Naruto was feeling?' he wondered, eyes fixated upon the dancing flames before him.

"Amazing! Amazing--" At Mr. Ollivander words, he lost his concentration and the fire disappeared. "Powerful, those made form a dragon and with the yew of which symbolize power and victory no less. Very fitting indeed." Ollivander smiled in his creepy way that made his silvery eyes glisten in the dark room. The effect sent shivers up all three spines. Holding out a hand for the needed money, Sasuke took the money from Sakura and placed the seven galleons down. He then gather his teammates and left the shop with an awkward silence following them.

"Did you feel it? You did didn't you!" Naruto exclaimed, once outside and breaking the silence. "These wand are strangely interesting aren't they." It was more of a statement than a question. "And here I thought they were just useless 'twigs'. Okay- I still think they _are_ but they do hold some strange powers in them, don't you think?" Sasuke and Sakura had no choice but to nod their heads in agreement. The blond was right after all for they had felt it as well.

"We should talk about this later," Sasuke said then, glancing to the sky. "It's getting dark and we should speak of this in the privacy of our room."

"Yes, Sasuke's right. And I'm getting tired anyway," Sakura added and wearily smiled.

"Fine. We'll go back for now but tomorrow, I want to explore this place some more." Grinning, he ushered them into the alley and changed back to their adult forms. Each let out a sigh of relief. It was rather straining when trying to maintain a henge.

Coming out of the alley, they headed back to the Leaky Cauldron.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

Harry Potter did not like traveling by Port Key. It was just as exhausting as traveling by Floo Powder and the effect left him quite winded. That was a while ago however and now he was sitting high above the Quidditch stadium and staring down at the field below. It was quite the spectacular sight and the people he had just met seemed to be quite interesting as well. Before they had arrived by portkey, he had the chance of meeting Cedric Diggory, a now fifth year student at Hogwarts. He was not a sort of person Harry would say he hated or liked and there was not much to say of him at all besides the fact that that Cedric Diggory was the seeker for the Hufflepuff House Quidditch team who so happened to beat Harry just last year during the school's tournament.

Then there was Bagman and Crouch of whom he had met during their walk to the World Cup Quidditch field. They were not exactly two people he could say that he had a liking to as well. Mr Ludovic Bagman was an unusual character who seemed to have a love for gambling that anyone could see it to eventually be his downfall. Mr. Barty Crouch was a rather interesting person as well. Quite a stern man and his attitude towards Winky, a house-elf he had met just moments ago, seemed to say everything he needed to know of the man. However much Harry thought on it though, his mind continued to be quite distracted by the field below. It would seems that something was about to happen and as Mr. Bagman barged in their box, he could tell that the game was about to begin as the man placed his wand to his throat and said the simple spell, "_Sonorus_," and spoke over the roar of the crowd as people continued to filled the stadium.

After making his introduction and greeting them all for coming to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup, began his introducing of the Ireland and Bulgarian team mascot. Looking through his Omniocular, Harry and crew could see movements from the right side of the field and he could hear Mr. Weasley's voice from beside him asking and wondering what sort of Mascot the Bulgarian team had brought before giving a soft exclamation that caught Harry off guard.

"Veelas!" was what he distinctively heard and before could ask the man what a veela was, said creatures, women, hundreds of them, glided into the field.

Harry liked them. Very much so for even if they were only half humans, they were incredibly beautiful. Watching them dance about the field to the music that had started playing, his mind went blissfully blank and all that matter to him was to keep on watching them as they dance and he had a wish to get closer—closer—

Somewhere far away, he was sure he heard Hermione's voice, asking him what it was that he was doing.

The music stopped then and Harry blinked. _What was he doing? _Coming out of his daze, he found himself standing up and had one of his leg hanging half way over the side of the box. Gazing about him, he could see Ron was standing as well but looked as if he was about ready to dive off instead. From below, as the Veelas made to leave the field, shout of protest erupt from the crowd as they wish for them to stay. Harry was of the same mind really and he knew for sure then that he would be cheering for the Bulgarian team. So then he wondered why he had a large shamrock place on his chest. Ron was thinking the same as he seemed to be practically trying to shred his shamrock of his hat.

Mr. Weasley's hand then broke into his line of sight and Harry watch as he took the hat from Ron.

"I wouldn't be doing that," he said with a smile. "Ireland will be winning after all."

Ron seemed to only have the decency to say, "Huh?" with quite a rather dumbstruck look on his face and Hermione made a tutting noise as she noticed it.

"Boys," she said, rolling her eyes. "Honestly." She sounded quite exasperated by their behaviors and reached out to pull both Harry and Ron back into their seats.

Mr. Bagman took that moment then to continue his introduction, this time calling forth the Irish team mascot. A large shamrock comprise of thousand of tiny leprechauns soared above them as bright colors filled the sky. The crowd _oooohed _and _aaaahed _as then gold coins began raining down upon them.

Ron seemed to be happiest of all as he made a grab for them and then shoving it into Harry's hand. He was trying to pay him back for the Omnioculars that he had brought for them.

"Here ya go Harry!" Ron ruefully grinned. "Now you have to get me a Christmas present, ha!" Ron sounded rather proud of himself. It was the deal they had made. Harry need not by him a Christmas present if he gave Ron an Omniocular.

Harry sighed but found his friend to be amusing nonetheless. Placing the coins away, they each returned their attentions to the field as the leprechauns left the field just as the Veelas did. The players were then called out. Harry had his eyes on the seekers though as he was a seeker of Gyffindor's Quidditch Team at Hogwarts, and he wish to see how these professionals played. Lynch was seeker of the Irish team and Krum was seeker of the Bulgarian team. Krum caught his attention most of all. His looks alone seemed to have caught the attention of the entire field but his way with a broom was a sight indeed.

After a moment of endless cheering, Mr. Bagman's voice broke through the crowd once more.

"And—theeeeeeeey're OFF!!"

The game began—and ended just as fast and just as exciting as it had started. Even though Ireland won, it was Victor Krum, Bulgarian seeker, who caught the snitch. The Weasley twin, Fred and George, were quite happy with themselves as they knew it was to happen this way and thus made a bet stating thus to Ludovic Bagman. And as Bagman had just pointed his wand to his throat and muttered, "_Quietus_," said twins immediately appeared at his side with hands outstretched.

Ah- a great game for all, especially Harry, and yet a sure unlucky day for Ludovic 'Ludo' Bagman.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

They made their way back to the tent that they had rent. It was a magical tent. As on the outside however, it appeared small and like any old camping tent, but once inside, it was like an old fashion three room flat completed with a bathroom and kitchen.

Harry, Ron, and the others talked excited as they entered their tent, the excitement of the game still running through their system. Everyone sitting around the table, they replayed all the events they had seen happened in the game. Argument and friendly disagreement and other such likes continued on through the night and it was only when Ginny had fallen asleep at the table did Mr. Weasley called everything to a halt and order everyone to change into their pajamas and to get into their bunks.

Harry, sleeping upon the top bunk above Ron, laid their starring at the tent's canvas top while his thoughts drifted away. He thought of Victor Krum and of many of the spectacular moves Harry had seen the other do on the field today. Harry was inspired and wished he could have done half the moves that Krum did and he knew he would be trying them out once he has a chance to get on his broom again.

Unknown of whether he had fallen asleep or not as his mind continued to be filled with Krum flying high on his broom, he was jerked awake by Mr. Weasley's shouts.

"Everyone! Up! Now! Ron — Harry — come on, this is urgent!"

Harry sat up quickly and rubbed his eyes.

"'S' matter?" he asked and was dimly aware that something was wrong. He could senses it as from outside of the tent, all the merry cheering and singing of before were replaced by screams and the sound of people running. Hoping down off the bunk, Harry tried to find his clothes but Mr. Weasley stopped him before he could.

"No time. We must hurry." Harry felt himself being pushed forward towards the flap of the tent. "Get outside—quickly!"

Not wishing to argue, he did as he was told and could see Ron coming right behind him.

Bringing his attention to his surrounding, he could see people dashing about the camp ground and making a run for the woods, screaming as they went as if they were fleeing from something-- someone that was chasing them from behind. An eerie sight as whoever or whatever it was were followed by the sounds of laughter and drunken yells. Flashes of bright green lights could be seen and the sound like that of gunfire could be heard nearby.

There was complete and total chaos all about and from the distance, Harry was sure he could see the silhouettes of two long and serpent like creatures slithering across the dewy grass far in the background but as he blinked, they were gone. Was it his imagination? He shivered and felt a unknown chill rack his body and Harry tried to shake the thought of how eerily familiar those silhouettes were. Telling himself though that it was just a trick the eye, Harry turned his attention somewhere else and could see now a crowd of wizards with wands pointed out heading their way. Harry tried to see who they were but could see nothing as their faces were obscured from view, hidden behind their pointed hoods and masks. Sometime later- after everything was over- he found out that they were known as Death Eaters. He knew that they were no good wizards for what he saw them do was a very sickening sight indeed. Four figures were being contorted into grotesque shapes and it appeared that the masked wizards were the very puppeteers that were controlling them. Laughing they were, as if the very sight pleases them and Harry felt sick to the stomach.

"That's sick," Ron said, voicing his thought and just then, Hermione and Ginny came rushing towards along with everyone else. Ron's older brothers Bill, Charlie, and Percy had their wands out and in the ready.

"We're going to help the Ministry!" stated Mr. Weasley and he turned his attention to Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny. "I want you lots to head into the woods. Remember! Stick together. I will come for you all when everything is straighten out here. Now—go!"

Fred and George who appeared beside them watched as they father and older brothers ran off into the chaos a moment before ushering them into the woods.

"C'mon!" came Fred's voice as he grabbed hold of Ginny's hand whilst they ran. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and George followed close behind and upon reaching the trees, they all turned back to glance behind them. It was a horrific sight. Flames all about, burning down tents and everything there while the sound of children crying filled the air. They turned away and headed deeper into the forest.

"What happened?" came Hermione's anxious filled voice then and she came to an abrupt stop of which almost caused Harry and the rest to almost run into her. As the darkness made her unable to see anyone clearly, she pulled out her wand. _"Lumos!"_ she said and a narrow beam of light illuminated from the tip of her wand.

Everyone was quiet and didn't know what to say and they had the misfortune of see Draco Malfoy come their way.

Droc Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy. Of all the people to encounter at a time like this. How very unfortunate indeed.

"What happened? Why does a Mudblood as yourself want to know?" came Malfoy's drawling tone of voice.

Hermione frown while Ron stepped in front of her, eyes narrowed as he glared at Malfoy.

"Shut it Malfoy," the red head seethed. "Or else..."

"Or else what, Weasel?" The pale boy scoffed and sneered at the other who remained silent. "Like I thought. A weak Weasley like yourself don't have anything to back it up. Why don't you just run along and take your Mudblood friend with you?"

"Enough already Malfoy! We don't have to listen your foul mouth." Harry took that moment to speak up, annoyed with the blond. Ron made to step forward as well, fingers clenched but was stopped by the tugged at his shirt sleeve.

"Never mind him guys." A Mudblood was a vulgar and very offensive word for a witches or wizard who were of Muggle parentage and even though it offended her, Hermione did not want to see her friends do anything stupid.

Leading them away, she could hear Malfoy laughing.

"Keep you bushy head down, Granger. Those wizards out there are after Muggles after all." Malfoy called out after them but she paid him no heed.

Glancing about the area, she noted then that Fred, George and Ginny had disappeared. Crowded as the place was, there was not a sight of them. So many nervously looking people were all about and many others, teenagers, were arguing here and there. One even approached Harry and crew and found out that they were from another school.

There was a school besides Hogwarts? Harry hadn't known but he should have guess and he should have known also that Hermione knew all there was to it.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione continued along the path, eyes alert as they sought sign of Fred and the others. Ron pulled out his wand to light it up just as Hermione had and Harry made to do the same but found his to be missing.

Mentioning this to his friend, they search for it to no avail. Speculating that maybe had left it back at the camp or dropped it why running, Harry wasn't sure of either. All he knew though that it felt wrong to be without it.

More trouble ensued soon after when the three found their away to a clearing. Everything around them had appeared to be much quieter now, that is until they heard footstep coming from the side of them. They all turned their head to the side to see who it was but found it too dark and far to see.

They silences of the woods was broken by the sound of another's voice, an unfamiliar one that the three have never heard before and the person spoke a word in a calm voice that sounded very much like that of a spell.

"_MORSMORDRE!" _

Something bright and eerily green shot forth into the sky, going higher and higher and began to form an image across the vast open space. It startled them all.

"The hell?" exclaimed Ron as he jumped to his feet and stared intently into the sky above.

Harry's eyes narrowed as he tried to figure what it was when realization dawn upon him. It was a gigantic green skull with a serpent protruding from it's mouth to resemble something like a tongue. He wondered what it was doing there but before he could ponder more on it, Harry noted that they were being surrounded by many wizards, wands pointed their way.

Without much thought, he screamed "DUCK!" and pulled his friend down just as the surrounding wizards called out "_STUPEFY_!" and directed it towards them.

'What was going on?' he dazedly wondered but pulled out of his thought when he heard a familiar voice called out through the clearing.

"_Stop! STOP! That's my son!_" Mr. Weasley, wand held out, came rushing their way. Harry felt a wave of relief run through him but he knew that the trouble was far from over.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

They were accused of conjuring the Dark Mark- the image in the sky. They were deem innocent however, the blame shifting to that of another who happened to be there as well.

Winky. Many knew that she just couldn't have done it but so many evidence pointed her way and there was nothing anyone there could do.

Winky was there. She had a wand. Harry's wand. She was also a house-elf that disobeyed her master's order. That alone was all they needed to take her away.

It was not how Harry had hoped to spend the rest of his summer- for it to start out so well to end like such. And they had thought it to be over to when they arrived back at the Burrow but it would seems that trouble continued to follow soon after. News of the Ministry's _mishap _spread into the Daily Prophet. It was all thanks to one Rita Skeeter, a writer for the Daily Prophet, who took what it true and turned them into lies.

All and all—there was more trouble to deal with now than there was ever before and things were very tense within the Burrow. Mrs. Weasley was very worried for Mr. Weasley as he had left for the Ministry just as soon as he had return. All week he was there and was barely seen at home and that left the family on edge. Even Harry and Hermione was affected by it.

Harry would also every now and then glance to Hedwig's empty cage. It had been empty for a while now ever since he had spend her off with the letter to Sirius. He was worried if something might have happen to Sirius.

Maybe he was caught? No—if so, then it would have been in the Daily Prophet.

Then what? Harry sighed.

There was nothing he could do but wait and see.

* * *

TBC

**

* * *

Soifra's Ending Notes- (READ!!)  
**

For those who asked that I write a longer chapter- well here you go. I hope you're all satisfied. This is really the best I can do and even though I didn't plan on writing anything long, I just couldn't write all I had to say in a few short paragraphs and thus- this is what happened.

To **(b^^d)**: _More-nabe_ could be said to be correct as I was translating the meaning of the words rather than the sounds. It could be done as the English word '_Leaky_' and '_Cauldron_' has a Japanese equivalent to it. _Riiki Karudureno_ is right also as it translates the sound rather than meaning. It is the same as Severus Snape's name of which is changed to Seburusu Suneipu when said in Japanese by Sakura. -And your ideas on Gaara. Heh- I'll think about that.

To **X110888**: You figured huh. XD Yes- the earrings position has a play in this story but I won't be mentioning it yet. Sorry.

**About this chapter**: The last two chapter of this fanfic covers Chapter 1 through Chapter 10 of _Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_.

If you have questions about there being _Ramen _at the Leaky Cauldron, here's a little history. Ramen was introduce to London around 1992._ Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_ occurs in the mid-1994 so its kinda obvious that people in London would know about Ramen.

**Chopsticks**- those things was invented 5,000 years ago so that is obvious to.

Three _galleons _and three _knuts _are equivalent to _15.02 _in_ UK Pound, 30.25_ in _US Dollars_, and also is equivalent to about _3500.07 _in_ Japanese Yen_.

The earrings- yes they change colors. It just so happened that when they first got it, the color resembles their eye colors. (c.c;) I can actually imagine Dumbledore doing this. He quite eccentric after all.

If you are wondering about the names- I changed them. _Samuel_ and _Sarah _for Sasuke and Sakura. They seemed to be more common names and they don't stand out as much as _Saber _and _Scarletta_. Nicolas. I like Nicolas so I left it alone.

Now- their wands. According to J.K Rowling, she used a **Celtic chart** that depended on their birthday to decide what sort of wood each of her character's wand would be made from. Her main ones anyway. I decided to use it as well.

December 24 - January 20 = Birch (Beth)  
January 21 - February 17 = Rowan (Luis)  
February 18 - March 17 = Ash (Nion)  
March 18 - April 14 = Alder (Fearn)  
April 15 - May 12 = Willow (Saille)  
May 13 - June 9 = Hawthorn (Huath)  
June 10 - July 7 = Oak (Duir)  
July 8 - August 4 = Holly (Tinne)  
August 5 - September 1 = Hazel (Coll)  
September 2 - September 29 = Vine (Muin)  
September 30 - October 27 = Ivy (Gort)  
October 28 - November 24 = Reed (Ngetal)  
November 25 - December 23 = Elder (Ruis)

Naruto was Ivy and Sakura was Alder. Sasuke was an exception as I gave him Yew when he should have had Holly. I believe it is more fitting for him.

For the core, I read that Ollivander opts only to use phoenix feathers, unicorn tail hairs, and dragon heartstrings. Veela hair and Thestral hair has been used as well but they are not as common as the others above. Amusingly- I have read many other Naruto and Harry Potter crossover where Ollivanders has use some very strange things for the core of his wand. (XP)

As I like sticking to the facts and the original, I did my studies and the story is solely influence more on the book than the movie.

**About Sasuke's and Naruto's relationship(**for those who are wonder**)**: It's very subtle. Yes- there will be some romance but I'm not going to go all out on it though. For now anyway, I'm just building it up on Sasuke's side and Naruto is just plan oblivious to it all. It's seems right that Naruto wouldn't notice that Sasuke is giving the him hungry looks. Sasuke is more mature and I just get this feeling that he has alot more experience on love/lust than Naruto does. For pete's sake- as a genin, Naruto doesn't even notice that Hinata is crushing on him and he has quite an immature reaction towards Jiraya(SP?) Icha Icha Paradise books. His Sexy no Jutsu, I'll give Naruto the benefit of the doubt for those but that's it. Anyway- just be patient. Naruto will notice something is up eventually. ^^v

If there anything else I haven't yet explain, just mention it in a review and I'll get to it next chapter.


	6. Chapter 5: Fated Meetings

**Unseen Consequences**

C h a p t e r 5 – Fated Meetings

* * *

"How prudently we proud men compete for nameless graves, while now and then some starveling of Fate forgets himself into immortality" -Wendell Phillips

* * *

The idea of heading back to the Leaky Cauldron seemed to be a very good idea but with the persistence of one excited blond, Sasuke and Sakura were once again being dragged about the street of Diagon Alley. They had visited an assortments of shops now and near the end of the day, even Sakura was becoming just as excited as Naruto. From one shop to another, they did eventually stop to rest at a placed known as _Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour_ but went off again after that and visit other shops and sometime even returning to a few shops that they had visited before, one place in particular being _Magical Menagerie_. Naruto had wanted to purchase a gigantic purple frog but with Sasuke firmly stating, "No. You have many already. You don't need anymore...", Naruto mood had taken a downer but his happy deposition returned quickly enough after purchasing a Puffskein behind their back.

What is a Puffskein you ask? Well, according to the shopkeeper of Magical Menagerie, a Puffskein is a long-tongued custard-coloured little furball that makes a calming purring noise. These pleasant creatures are often kept as pets, particularly by wizarding children. They were scavengers, and as scavengers, they will eat anything from leftovers to spiders. They are very easy to care for. Sakura squealed at how cute it was.

By this time, Uchiha Sasuke was suffering from a very bad migraine but inwardly, he did find that all that had happened today was very amusing. Why? Because secretly, Sasuke liked watching Naruto smiling and having fun for somewhere inside him, it created a pleasant feeling, a feeling that Sasuke opt in not wanting to know about. Not until he was ready to admit to it anyway.

Finally heading back to the Leaky Cauldron, Sasuke following behind like usual as he was busy contemplating things to himself, the sun had long set and the moon and stars were now illuminating brightly in the night sky. They were now currently back in their room above the pub.

"Ugh! I'm so tired!" yawn Naruto as he stretched his arms high above his head and the Puffskein he had bought that was currently sitting upon Naruto's shoulder, fell off and scuttled across the floor, seemingly having found something to eat down there.

Sakura gave a slight yawn as well and sat herself down upon one of the beds that was there.

"I am too," Sakura mumbled and glanced then from her bed to the other. "But there is only two beds and there are three of us. What are we suppose to do?"

Naruto grinned widely at her question. "Me and Sasuke can share of course and you can have that bed there all to yourself."

As he was walking across the room, Sasuke almost tripped over his own two feet at the blond's statement. Sasuke and Naruto, share? _That was a bad idea_, Sasuke was thinking but didn't have time to voice it as Sakura was the first to speak instead. _Damn her for knowing too much_. Sasuke knew that his pink haired friend knew exactly of what he was feeling—thinking.

"Eh heh," she laughed nervously. "I don't think that's a good idea."

Naruto pouted and lulled his head innocently to the side. "Oh why not? We're both guys so I don't see any problem."

"It just isn't and besides—erm—" Sakura chew the bottom of her lips, trying to think of an answer. "Sasuke's a bad sleeper," she finally stated and promptly ignored the glare that was directed her way. "He moves around a lot."

"Yeah, er—bad sleeper," Sasuke found himself muttering unconvincingly and he turned his back to lean against the window he had come to stand in front of. He had one hand hung loosely across his chest while the other was covered over his face just below the nose. He did want the other to see his heated face. Luckily, Naruto only seemed to find the comment amusing and laugh and was only wondering how Sakura would know something like that.

Either way—somehow or another—the ending decision still ended with Sasuke sharing a bed with Naruto. Sakura had just been to tired to argue more on the point and only ended up giving Sasuke an 'I tired' look before changing and going to bed. Sasuke, on the other hand, just had nothing pliable to give as an excuse and was now stuck lying on a bed next to a sleeping Naruto who currently had his back to the Uchiha.

He couldn't sleep. Too many thoughts were occupying his mind and he couldn't seem to find a solution to any of his problems. And Uchiha Sasuke had many problems at that but he wasn't the sort to just spill his guts and let the whole world know of them though as the majority of his problem were of the personal sort and only a fraction dealt with the mission.

The current occupancy of his mind that was becoming his biggest problem of all was one blond blue eyed male who happened to be snoring away (and being quite oblivious) beside him. There was something, _something—_that Sasuke knew not the name off, doing _something_ inside him. What that _something_ was doing, Sasuke did not know and that—_bothered_—him. He had an inkling feeling of what it could be but his mind did not seem in wanting to comprehend it. It was evasive and the feelings and thoughts of this _something_ seemed to flutter away whenever the Uchiha wished to get a grasp of it so that he could thoroughly examined it.

'A fluttering feeling—,' Sasuke mused and his brows furrowed in thought and finding the thought to be annoying to say the least. Lying upon his back atop the bed with arms crossed and propped behind his head, he continued to contemplate his unusual predicament. After a much and rather long silence encased the already semi silent room, Sasuke sighed and rubbed a hand over his eyes as he finally realized then that there was, in all actuality, really no point for him to contemplate his situation at all to begin with. He already _knew_ what he was feeling. It was only the fact that he wished not to admit to his feelings that was the problem for he knew if he were to admit to his feelings—it would only bring upon him ill fortune. Or so he thought. He just wasn't sure.

And yes. Uchiha Sasuke knew a lot of things and the majority of the things he knew, he wished he never knew at all. They were a hindrance, a plague, a complete disturbance. He had no need to be thinking of his feelings but his mind and (Sasuke grudging hated to admit) his heart seemed to think otherwise and the conclusion that both (his mind and heart) had come up with, left him quite baffled and speechless.

Broken out of his revere by movements from beside him, Sasuke watched as Naruto shifted about in his sleep. His breath hitched as the blond male turned to fully face him as Naruto had turned to sleep on his side. From this angle, Sasuke was given a great view of Naruto's peaceful slumbering face. It was a sight indeed and before he realized what it was that he was doing, he had one arm extended out and fingers were gently then caressing the side of Naruto's exposed cheek. The blond continued to sleep, unperturbed.

'Damn,' the Uchiha cursed but did not remove his fingers. He instead turned onto his side as well and gazed openly at the face before him. For once, his expression was completely opened and he was happy that no one was there to see it. Fingers subtly glided across the surprisingly smooth cheek, softly and slowly etching along the slightly visible whisker like marks that was there.

"Dammit," he softly breathed. "Dammit Naruto. Whether you like it or not, I'm falling for you." Those were the word he had never wanted to hear coming out of his own lips but whether he liked it or not, they escaped him, seemingly to have a mind of their own. From those words, it was also a turning point for Sasuke. He had thought that he would never admit to it but just now, at this very moment, he said aloud that he was falling for his blond friend. It was a sort of revelation in all aspect that the Uchiha could think of and he just found it too hard to believe. Somehow or another though, Sasuke felt a weight left off his shoulder. It was comforting and rather welcoming in a way and he wonder why he hadn't admitted to his feelings sooner.

After a moment, he chose then to remove his hand. Still able to feel the warmth that radiated from the other upon his palm, he balled his fingers into a tight fist and placed his hand at his side and it was well into the night before Sasuke finally allowed his mind to fall into the sanction of dreamless slumber.

By morning however, Sasuke was nowhere about and Naruto had groggily sat up with a hand unconsciously pressed to his cheek, a confused expression etched clearly across his face. Naruto had a feeling that he should be weary of something but before he could figure out what he should be weary about, he had fallen back asleep and the thought was soon left forgotten.

By late morning—everyone were finally fully awaken, washed and dressed. Naruto, Sasuke (having returning before anyone would wonder where he was) and Sakura were down at the pub below their room helping themselves to breakfast. Well, Naruto was anyway as Sakura was busy looking through a heavily bound textbook, seemingly doing more research about the place, and Sasuke was reading what looked to be a newspaper. The only odd thing about it was the fact that the picture in the front page had people moving about it. All three were quite surprised by it, yes, but they kept the thought to themselves. They had read about these moving pictures after all but that did not keep them from wondering of it though.

"Look at this," came Sasuke's voice and Naruto glanced up from his plate of sausages and eggs to look over at the other. Ramen for breakfast seemed a very appealing idea but with one pink hair koinochi stating that Naruto needed to eat something other than '_that junk_' (so stated by Sakura) he opt for for a normal _English _breakfast instead.

Sasuke leaned forward upon the table, his face completely compose and clear of any of his previous thoughts from last night, and placed the opened paper flat upon the table before them. He pointed a finger to a heading and read aloud.

"_Scene of Terror at the Quidditch World Cup_," Sasuke read and then turned to look at his two companions. "It seems that trouble is already starting before we even get a chance to begin our mission." He sighed and sat back whilst his gaze travel up to the black and white picture of the Dark Mark.

"I don't understand," Naruto decided to speak up then. "What does that stupid skull snake thingy have to do with our mission?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Didn't you do your reading?"

"Er..."

"Obviously not." Sakura sighed before explaining. "That mark is called the Dark Mark and is known to only be used by Death Eaters when they kill and before you ask, Death Eaters are minions of Voldemort—the enemy of all good people and the one who we should be weary about while we are here. He is the person we are to protect the castle from." She turned her attention to Sasuke then who had a thoughtful look upon his face. Naruto had one as well. She opened her lips to speak but thought better of it and clamp it shut. It would seem that the Uchiha had something else on his mind beside the paper before them. Whatever it was, Sakura knew well enough not to impose. It was two early for her to intervene after all but she was growing quite annoyed at how slow the man was moving and she felt that such emotions could become a hindrance to the mission. The other needed to get his act together soon.

'If Sasuke doesn't make a move soon or do it before this mission is over, I'm going to literally kill someone.' Sakura heaved a frustrated sigh that did not go unnoticed by her two male companions. Noticing this, she offered a weak smile for cover.

"I'm heading back upstairs," she stated loudly and in a much too innocent tone. Standing up, she snapped her book closed and turned away as to ignore the curious stare from Naruto. She was really fighting the urge to turn around then and tell her blond friend to hurry up and 'Get a clue'. Inwardly sighing and clutching the book to her chest, she left the two to their own affairs.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

The two weeks came and went and before they knew it, Naruto and his friend were packed and ready to leave for King's Cross Station.

They were all decked out in new attires with Sakura in a nice light blue, one shoulder, short sleeve top and white skirt and Sasuke in his navy blue, short sleeve sport jersey that adapted nicely to his lean upper body. He wore the usual cargo style pants that hung loosely over his black sandals. Naruto, well—even if he looked quite appealing in his new attire of a sleeveless white and orange jersey and knee length shorts, the fact that somehow there was always orange somewhere in the outfit was quite amazing.

With everything where its suppose to be, each slung their pack unto their back and left the Leaky Cauldron- after they bid their farewell to Tom anyway. The age man had been quite helpful during their stay there after all.

Out in the busy street of London, England, it was thanks to Sakura who had done a full study of the maps that they found King's Cross Station easily enough and with a quick deduction of their surroundings, they easily managed to find the strange portal between Platform 9 and 10 that lead to the area of Platform 9 ¾. It seemed to be quite an obvious place to figure and the ninjas had to wonder how anyone here at the station would not notice it. Seeing as they were not wizards though, they decided not to waste their time in wondering about it and let it be. They also did not want to draw any attention to themselves by just standing around while staring at a blank wall. It would look quite odd after all and they quickly stepped through the portal.

Granted the view of a large red train that read Hogwarts Express upon the side, they knew immediately that they had came to the right place. Looking about they could see that they were quite early as only a few people were about. They had about an hour left before the train was even to leave. Taking this as a good sign as they had no wish to run into anyone or be bombarded by questions of who they were, they handed in their tickets to the conductor and was pointed the way to their reserved compartment. In all actuality- it wasn't any different from any of the other compartment that was there.

With their things stored away, Sasuke and Sakura could see how jumpy and elastic their blond friend was behaving.

"Its about time that we are able to start our mission," stated Naruto who currently had his head stuck out the compartment's window. His Puffskein of which he had yet to name seemed to have attached itself to his blond hair. The creatures pink fur fluffed and fluttered about in the soft breeze that could be felt from the open window. Outside, Naruto could see students coming through the portal and making their way towards the train. His excited blue eyes roamed all about the place as he talked, finding it hard to keep them still.

"Just sitting around in that stuffy room was beginning to get boring." Naruto pulled his head back in and turned about to glance at his two friends and frown when they seemed to be practically ignoring him. He puffed out his cheeks and pouted.

"Oh come on! Don't tell me you two aren't excited as well?"

"We are excited, can't you tell?" Sasuke deadpanned and turned to gaze dully at the blond. Naruto give him a bland look as he basically could hear the sarcasm in the other's tone.

"Yeah, Naruto," Sakura chimed in. "We are excited. We just choose not to show it." Even though she said thus, Naruto had a hard time believing it also, especially when she had her nose in another book. Giving up, Naruto sighed and quickly stood. That, at least, drew their attention for a bit. Sasuke raised a brow while Sakura blinked up at her blond friend.

"You two are boring." He huffed out and then offered a wide grinned. "I think I'm going to explore the train," he said in a jubilant and rather mischievous tone and dashed out of the compartment before either could say anything to stop him. His last words were, "Watch my Puffskein for me," and he was gone and said Puffskein was now bouncing about the compartment before settling itself upon Sasuke's lap.

"Stupid Naruto." Sakura sighed as she gazed solemnly at the opened compartment door. "I hope he doesn't cause any trouble."

Sasuke gave a 'hn' in agreement and gaze wearily at the pink furball. The corner pf his lips twitch upward to form the smallest of smiles when the small creature began to purr.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

In the next thirty to forty-five minutes or so, Harry Potter was also making his way through the portal between Platform 9 and 10. Walking into the wall, he and the Weasley's were then standing within Platform 9 ¾. Just before they had come though, Mr. Weasley had received a strange message in the even stranger of fashion (well, according to Harry anyway as he had never ever seen a floating head, Mr. Amos Diggory's (Cedric Diggory's father) head at that, in a burning fireplace before).

That aside however, the name mention during the conversation had gotten him quite curious as to who this Mad-Eye was, but before Harry could think or ask on the subject, he found out quite soon enough that 'Mad-Eye Moody' was a nutcase, according to George anyway and a great wizard, according to Bill.

'A nutty wizard,' Harry had thought then. 'That sounds very appealing.' Harry could particularly hear the sarcasm in his voice and without thinking more on the subject, Harry had returned to his room to grab his things so that they could leave for the Hogwarts Express. As the Weasley had not their car nor were they able to borrow one from the Ministry, they had resort to taking the normal Muggle way and called for cabs. It was not a wonderful experiences at all as they had to cram into the back to sit with all their luggages. It was a very cramp and uncomfortable experiences.

Now that they had arrive however, Harry, Ron, and Hermione boarded the train and found themselves an empty compartment in the far back. As they had walked through the aisle, the trio picked up small tidbits of there being a hyperactive blond running a-muck somewhere about the train. Harry's first thought on who the blond was was of Malfoy but quickly pushed the thought aside as 'hyperactive' was not something he would have ever associated with said person.

'Must be a new kid,' Harry wondered vague and immediately ignore the topic and entered their chosen compartment. Unfortunately, they had the ill honor of sitting in one that happened to be located behind Draco Malfoy and his cronies. Their door wide open, the could clearly hear the conversation coming from the other compartment of which Malfoy was talking rather smugly of a place called Durmstrang. Before they could hear more though, Hermione had softly slid their compartment door closed.

"Durmstrang's another wizardry school?"

"Don't you guys know anything?" Hermione asked and huffed a sigh. "Well—yes, it is and it's got a bad reputation. According to _An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe,_ it puts a lot of emphasis on the Dark Arts." She said thus in a sniffily tone and crossed her arms hauntingly across her chest.

Seeing it, Harry left the subject as is but Ron continued either way. The conversation went on then of where the school was and how it was hidden. No one knew, or so Hermione says. It was just like Hogwarts, hidden by magic. That said, they all left it at that. Moments passed and the train had long taken off. Outside their compartment's window, rain fell heavily down upon the moving train and the sound created as each droplets hit the top of the train was quite soothing to Harry's ear.

Many of their other friends dropped by every now and then but Harry did not pay much attention, not even when Ron began boasting about his day at the World Cup and the things he had gotten there. It was all quite uneventful really, that is, before Malfoy decided to stick his head into their compartment anyway.

"We saw him up close," Ron was telling the others, one of them being Neville. Victor Krum was the main topic of their current conversation. "We were right in the Top Box—"

"And it'll be your first and last time, Weasley."

Malfoy stood there before their door, his two cronies, Crabbe and Goyle standing imposingly behind him.

"Go away Malfoy. We didn't ask you to join us so go and suck up somewhere else and leave us be," Harry deadpanned, glaring at the blond boy and got the satisfaction of seeing the corner of Malfoy's eye twitch in annoyance.

Malfoy glanced then about the small compartment and stop when his eyes landed up a maroon colored cloth that seemed to be covering what looked to be a cage. The sound of something thrashing about it could be heard but Malfoy's attention was on the grubby cloth. It was Ron's dress robe, something that was required for their forth year.

"What is _that_?" the male asked in mock surprise and look quite disgusted as he noted the condition of the attire. Malfoy smirked as he watch Ron try to hide it but with much quickness, he reached over and seized it before the other could. Holding onto the moldy cuff he showed it to Crabbe and Goyle.

"How ugly," Malfoy said in an all to happy tone. "Don't tell me you plan on wearing this piece of junk? No, don't answer." Malfoy face twisted into an ugly sneer. "You are. You're too poor to buy anything else after all." The blond laughed then, Crabbe and Goyle's voice soon following. Stopping, he silenced the two behind him with a hand and toss the robe back to the red head who was now seething, face red in anger and embarrassment.

"Eat dung Malfoy!" was all Ron could say and Malfoy laughed again.

"So," Malfoy began, quickly changing the subject as he had grown bored of it. "Are you going to enter Weasley? I'm betting you would. The fame would do you and you pathetic family some good. There's also the money. If you were able to get a hold of it, then maybe you can get a hand on some decent robe—"

"What the hell are you talking about, Malfoy!" snapped Ron.

Malfoy looked annoyed and he crossed his arms over his chest. "_Are you going to enter?_" he repeated but seeing their looks of confusion, a gleeful smile spread across his lips. "You don't know. How great is that and here your father works at the Ministry. Pathetic." He smirked. "My father told me ages ago." A smug look appeared upon his face.

It bothered Harry to watch it and he wanted to wipe the look of his face. 'And really, what was he talking about?' Harry wondered. He would not say that he hadn't guess that something was up for during his stay at the Weasley's, hints had been dropped about, hinting that something big was to happen at Hogwarts this year. Was that what Malfoy was mentioning about? Tuning his attention back to the blond boy, he could see that the other to be still talking. Unable to tolerate it any longer, he spoke.

"Enough of your jabbering, Malfoy. We don't need to hear anymore of your useless crap."

Malfoy clamped his mouth shut, an indignant look then crossing his face a moment before he open his lips to say more but was stop when the compartment on the other side of Harry slid open and a beautiful pink haired girl stepped out, a very annoyed look upon her face.

"_Anatatachi shounen tachiha shizuka?!_" she said in a tongue none there could understand. They were all too surprised to question her though, quite stunned by her sudden appearance.

Harry and Ron and most of the people in the other compartments took the moment to stick their heads out then to see who it was that had spoken.

The woman, seeing their confused looks blinked, place a hand to her ear and then sheepishly chuckled before muttering something incomprehensible that sounded very much like a curse and disappeared back inside her compartment a moment before popping her head back out. She held something in her hand that she then clipped to her right ear.

"Sorry about that," she said now in clear and understandable English. "Now, what I said before. Will you please be quiet?" Her green eyes narrowed dangerously and all the boys there took an audible gulp. "I have a person sleeping in here so if you would, please quiet down or else I'll make sure your lips remain permanently shut." The woman smiled as she said thus and that made the threat all the more frightening. Watching her then heading back inside her compartment, the aisle of the train was engulfed into an awkward silences of which Malfoy was the first to break.

"Che. Stupid chit," was all he said and turned to leave. Everyone else took that as a sign to leave as well, quietly returning to their compartments. Neville and the rest bid their leave and left as well.

"Blimey." Ron muttered after the other was gone. He had just sat down on the opposite side of Harry. His eyes were wide as he gaze across his seat to the other. "Who was that hot babe?"

Hermione, who was seated next to him was unfazed by all the previous commotion, her nose stuck in her book still. Her eyes did give the slightest of twitch at Ron's comment but she ignored it. She was curious as well however but she decided to keep it to herself.

Everything soon enough returned to normal as the boys went on bickering about the World Cup, Victor Krum, and anything else that would come to mind, especially of the beautiful pink haired woman. When thinking that things had finally settled back down, their compartment door was suddenly banged opened and a frantic blue eyed orange blond blur dashed inside, slammed the door shut, and dived into the corner and seemed to try in making his body as small as possible as he hopped upon the seat, his back to them, and had his legs crunched up to his chest. Hands that were frantically searching about for something and having grabbed for Ron's dress robe, the person pulled the cloth over himself. He looked now like a large lump of dirty rag. (Yes, Ron's dress robe was just that ugly.)

The golden trio had at that moment jumped far away from the other and were now all cuddling to one side of the compartment near the door and were staring wide eyed at the person who was trying to hide himself, and doing a rather good job at that, beneath Ron's dress robe. Hermione's book had fallen onto her lap, forgotten. They were to startled to say anything at the moment.

"Shh! I'm not here!!" the person had turned his head about and wide blue eyes stared at them. They tried to make out his face but with the robe wrapped so about him, it was hard to make anything out beside his eyes. They made to say something but the force of the person's stare made them think otherwise. Dumbfounded and too stunned for words at the suddenness of it all, they dumbly nodded their heads.

A look of relief entered the other's eyes and that seemed to slowly settle the forming tension in the room.

"Thanks," was all he said and turned away and promptly covered himself once more.

Just as he had done so, the door to their compartment burst opened again and a small group of girls stuck their heads in. They glanced about, seemingly looking for something and the golden trio watched as their eyes landed upon the bundled up dress robe. For a moment there, Harry, Ron and Hermione were sure they saw it tense up.

The group of girls appeared oblivious though and brought their attention to the golden trio.

"Have you three seen a tall orange blond male with blue eyes coming this way?" one asked and they appeared quite eager for an answer.

When the trio shook their head the group sighed and said, "Oh well—" smiled politely, "thanks anyway—" and left.

Silences ensued a moment before Hermione took it upon herself to speak up.

"Erm—I think you can come out now." The bundled move about and seemed to straighten, the dress robe sliding off the other to reveal messy sun kiss locks. Turn about, the trio could now clearly see his bright blue eyes but what really got their attention most of all was something else all together.

"Phew. That was close," the blond exclaimed and sagged back into the seat. "Thanks so much for covering me!" he continued. "Can't believe how persistence those girls were!" The man glanced up then, wondering why no one was saying a word. Seeing their face, he asked, "What?" They were staring at his face. "Is there something on my face?"

Ron broke out of his revere then and began laughing. The tension lifting, Harry and Hermione followed suit. Well, Hermione tried not to but it was hard.

"What?!" the blond man whined, seeming very oblivious and confused. "What is it?"

"Pftt!" Ron placed one hand to his lips and pointed at a finger at the man with the other. "Your... pfft... face—pfft! Make up!"

"Eh?" The stranger still seemed quite confused.

"Oh stop it Ron." Hermione said through muffled laughter. "I don't think we should be laughing at him."

"Well you're one to talk 'Mione." Ron said laughing. "You're laughing as well."

Hermione's face flushed at Ron's word and she quickly enough calmed herself. She turned her attention back to the stranger.

"I'm sorry for laughing but you... have make up all over your face."

She watched as his eyes grow wide a moment in apparent shock and they all could see that something had click inside the other as a look of realization then came over his face and a very noticeable blush spread from one ear to the other across his face.

The stranger sheepishly laugh. "Oops. I had forgotten." He sighed. "Those girl had decided to put make up on me," he mumbled, explaining.

"Why?" asked Harry once he and Ron had stop laughing. He was becoming rather curious as to how the blond male had gotten himself into such a predicament.

"Well—" and so he began his explanation, after a brief introduction anyway as Hermione had pointed out that they knew not each other's name.

Stating that his name was Nicolas was all he had said of himself before going on of how everything came to be. He was new, they figured, as the man had mentioned that it was his first time ever riding upon the Hogwarts Express and had decided to explore the vast vehicle. After a long bout of exploring and noting that the train was getting crowded, he was going about the compartment trying to find his own when he happened across a wrong one that belonged a group of sixth year students. They talk and Nicolas had thought they appeared nice enough. It started out in a friendly conversation with him asking innocent and curious question about the train, the school and the likes when one of the girls suddenly stated that he had a pretty face. That simple statement lead from one thing to another and one girl wondered aloud if he would look good with make up. Ron and Harry decided at that point of the story to burst into laughter once more.

"Hey! Stop laughing." Nicolas pouted but continued. "They had asked so nicely and I just couldn't bring myself to refuse but after a while when I asked them to stop, they wouldn't and so, I ran for it! You two should be feeling sympathy for me. Not laughing." Nicolas pointed an accusing finger at Ron and Harry and that seemed to only made them laugh harder.

Hermione on the other had was glaring.

"Honestly, you two, grow up already." She sighed and turned her attention to Nicolas and smiled up at him. Even if it was only a short while ago that they had met, they were getting along quite well. Although she wished to know more of the other, she knew it would have been too rude to ask. "I'm terribly sorry that you had to go through that," she said instead. "How about I help you remove your make up?" The male brighten and nodded his head.

"That would be great. Thanks Hermione and you two! Stop laughing already. It's not that funny. No wait. Okay. Fine. It is funny but—" He sighed. "Ugh. Stop laughing!"

"Fine fine. We'll stop but you got to admit, the make up look surprising good on you." Harry tease but noticing Hermione's glare directed at him, he raised his hand in defeat. "No need to look at me like that. I'm not laughing anymore see?" From across, he noted that Ron was still laughing, somewhat muffled anyway, and Harry nudged the other with his feet to get him to stop as well.

"Honestly," Hermione muttered as she noted this. "Boys." Shaking her head and leaving them be, she returned her gaze to Nicolas who seemed to have a rather happy expression upon his face.

"What is it?" she asked, sounding curious as she dug about her belonging for a clean cloth.

Nicolas softly chuckled. "Nothing. It's just that you three remind me very much of my own friends. A bit anyway." He grinned.

"Oh? Are you're friend here as well—ah – found it," she softly exclaimed, her question forgotten as she pulled out a small white cloth. Glancing up at Nicolas, she beckoned him to lean forward. Just as he complied and Hermione had her hand that was holding the cloth extended towards his face, the door to their compartment slid open once more.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

In the compartment on the other side of Harry and a few minutes before the curret happenings, Sakura heaved a weary sighed as she turned her gazed to the darken window beside here. The darkened sky and harsh weather seemed to only grow worse as time passed but she did not pay it any mind though, her thoughts on the people outside her compartment. At first, she had silently listened but as they continued to yap on and on outside her door, she had had enough of it and had yanked off her earring, hoping then that that would keep her mind off of it. When it didn't, Sakura had decided to shut them up herself.

As she had forgotten to replace her earring, she calmly endured the embarrassment and had gone to retrieve it and placed it back on before returning.

"Sorry about that. Now, what I said before. Will you please be quiet? have a person sleeping in here so if you would, please quiet down or else I'll make sure your lips remain permanently shut." Satisfied with the shock look that adorn each of their face, she headed back in to only heave another sigh as she noted the sleeping person before her.

There on the opposite seat was Sasuke, sound asleep. Sakura had expected this out of Naruto but to see Sasuke sleeping at this time of day, something must really be wrong. Glancing at his handsome face, she could see then the tired lines about his eyes. 'What could have caused them?' she wondered. 'Was he not getting enough sleep?' Sakura sighed. The Uchiha's problem didn't take much to think upon. It was quite easy to deduce that what was bothering Sasuke was the one and only person who could get under his skin.

Naruto.

Looking rather exasperated and deciding to just leave the other be, Sakura smacked a hand to her forehead before sitting down and returning her gaze to the dull and fogged window.

It was long after when Sakura noted movement from the corner of her vision. She turned her attention to the other.

"Finally awake I see."

Sasuke ignored the comment and asked instead, "Where's Naruto?"

Sakura sighed at the questioned asked. So typical of Sasuke to asked about Naruto first thing when he wakes up, she was thinking and fought the urge to roll her eyes.

"I don't know. I think he's still exploring the train." She frown. "It been a long while now though. Maybe he got lost?" It seemed unlikely.

"How can a person get lost on a train?" Sasuke asked dryly. "You go straight. There is no other direction you can go."

Sasuke shook his head and raked a hand through his hair before standing up.

"I'm going to go and look for him." He glanced to Sakura. "Stay here in case he returns while I'm gone," he then said as he notice that she was about to get up as well. Seeing Sakura sit back down and nodding her head, he left the compartment.

Out in the aisle, the Uchiha glance up and down the walkway, wondering which way he should go when he caught the familiar sound of the person he sought coming from the compartment next to his. His brow furrowed. There was no way he could mistake Naruto's voice.

Coming to stand before it and not even bothering to knock, he slid the door open and his obsidian eyes were quite shock at the scene before him. He notice not the other three that was there for all the Uchiha had eyes for was of his blond teammate. The corner of his lips twitch and he felt the urge to laugh but being a person who did no such things, he settled with a slight cough instead as he quickly schooled his features of any noteworthy emotions.

"Moron," he deadpanned. "What the hell happened to your face?"

"Sas—Samuel!" the blond quickly corrected himself and grinned, completely ignoring the glare the other directed at him.

Sasuke sighed and finally noted the others within the room. His dark eyes trailed from the bushy haired girl who sat across from Naruto and then to the black haired boy who sat next to her and and the red one across from him.

"..." His eyes trailed then back to the black hair boy for a moment longer before he glanced up to gaze at Naruto, a brow raised questioningly. Naruto said nothing and only offer his trademark grin before turning his attention to the bushy haired girl before him.

"Don't mind him, Hermione. Even if he doesn't look it, he's a good friend of mine."

"Oh." was all the girl said and offered the blond a smile. The two boys that were there seemed to relax at Naruto's word. Sasuke had notice that they were quite tense when he had opened the door.

"Come on. Lets go back to Sarah. She's been wondering where you were." It wasn't a total lie. He knew though that she must have been wondering. Giving them all one last glance, he turned to leave, knowing that Naruto would follow.

"Alright." Naruto stood after biding the three there an apologetic look. "See you later guys." With a wave to his new friends, he left, the door to their compartment closing shut behind him. Just as he entered his own compartment however, he was immediately bombarded by questioned from Sakura. Question of where he had been, of the make up and after explaining, Sakura, who had been laughing, help Naruto to remove the make up.

"You know, the black haired boy was Harry Potter," he said in a soft tone. Sakura was still trying to get the eyeliner off from around his eyes as he spoke. "Funny huh that I would run into him of all people."

"Yeah. What a coincidence," muttered Sakura. Done with the eyeliner, she tried to wipe away the lipstick on his lips. "Really Naruto. How the hell could you let some girls put make up on you?" Exasperated that it wasn't coming off as good as she wished, she began whipping harder and promptly ignore the blond's protest.

"Well, they asked nicely and I didn't want to hurt their feelings. If I had known though that they would be that persistence, I wouldn't have agreed." Grimacing as Sakura wiped at his face harder, he decided it best then to remain quiet.

From the other side, Sasuke silently watch, quite amused even if his face show nothing of it. From the compartment over of where one Harry Potter and his friends occupied however, the golden trio had now gone into an animated talk of 'Nicolas' and his friend 'Samuel' as they wondered who they truly were and what business they had with Hogwarts. They couldn't be new students after all.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

As the train came to a stop, every student on board had long changed into their robes and were now filing out and into the heavy downpour that awaited them outside. Everyone was talking animatedly with one another but quieten immediately when three strangers climbed out of the train.

The silences went unnoticed though as everything about them were drown out by the sound of clashing thunder. The rain decided then to come down even harder than before. Everyone, including the three stranger cursed at their predicament and they grudgingly made their way to the castle.

From behind, a largely built man gathered the first years.

"Oooh, I wouldn't fancy crossing the lake in this weather," came a girls shivering voice and everyone silently agreed as they got onto the horseless carriage. Well, it wasn't so horseless for the three strangers but they were too wet and tired to bother in saying anything off it.

**-x-x-x-x-x-**

Following closing behind the many students, Naruto and crew passed through the gates and up the sweeping drive. Before them, the ninjas could see Hogwarts castle coming nearer as from the distance, the lighted windows proved to be a beacon of welcome, to show that they were almost there. Once the carriage came to a stop before a flight of stone steps, the students jumped immediately off and dashed quickly up the stairs and into the warmth of the castle.

Naruto was in awe of his surrounding and took the moment to allow his eyes to roam about the place. It was huge- possibly the largest building that he had ever seen and it appeared to be very ancient indeed.

"Wow," he found himself softly exclaiming and a few eyes turned his way, giving him curious look. He knew that they must be wondering who he was and why he was here. Not just him. They must be wondering of his friends as well. He knew though that he could not give them an answer. The students weren't to know of the mission after all. The decision was up to their client. From over the crowd of students, Naruto could see his newly made friends, Hermione, Ron, and Harry. He tried to get their attention but before he could, a woman came waltzing down the hall, her face looking naturally grim and her graying hair tied tightly into a bun upon her head. A pair of rectangular spectacles adorn across the bridge of her nose. She silently noted the students and the three ninjas and approach them first.

"You three must be _them_," she said, eying the three with a cautious gaze. She had a right to be weary after all as she had never met them before and knew not of what they were capable of. Seeing the three nod their heads, she continued.

"I am Professor MacGonagall. Please follow along with the rest of the students then as we make our way into the Great Hall." That said, she turned her attention to the many students who were craning their ears to try and hear what they spoke of.

"Well, move along then!" she ordered sharply, causing the crowd to jump. "Into the Great Hall, come on."

As everyone headed up another flight of stairs and entered through the large set of double doors on the right, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura gazed at one another a moment before following close behind. They were then offered quite a spectacular view as they witness the overly large room that held four long tables filled with other students and a magicked ceiling that showed a cloudy night sky. Flashes of lights could be seen forking across the sky and the sound of rumbling thunder could be heard every now and then as the students went about to sit down at their appropriate tables. While the students situated themselves into their Houses table, Professor MacGonagall led the ninjas up to the front table and off to the side of where there were rendered out of sight from the students below. An olden man with a long white bread and bemused eyes that glowed mysterious behind his half moon spectacles came forward to welcome them in a soft and raspy voice.

"Welcome, ninja's of Konoha. I have long awaited your arrival." The old man smiled. "I am Professor Albus Dumbledore, your client and also the headmaster of this school." He nodded his head towards the three as Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura offered him a deep bow. "There is no need for formalities. I wonder instead however if I will be given the honor of knowing your names?"

Naruto, who had form a liking for the man immediately, offered a wide and friendly grinned and opened his lips to speak but was cut short when Sasuke spoke first of which caused the blond to pout but decided to let it be.

"If it is alright with you, we wish not to disclose our true names."

"Ah. Tis a pity but I suppose I can agree to that."

"Then you may call me Samuel. My blond friend here is Nicolas and the woman is Sarah." The three offered then another deep bow, their fist clasped before them as they did so to show a sign of respect. This Albus Dumbledore was the sort that seemed to truly deserved it. There was just something about him, despite his oldness, that spoke of great power.

"We wish to know of what we are to do now that we are here. We have a small understanding but we wish for you to fully explain it to us."

"Ah yes—what you shall do. As I do not wish to alarm my students, I had mention in the letter that I wish for you to go undercover. Throughout the two weeks, I have kept in touch with your Hokage and we have now come to a decision." He glanced to Sakura. "She has mention that the young lady here was a medic and has decided that she shall go undercover as an assistance to our head nurse, Madame Pomprey. For you two gentlemen, your Hokage was not specific and thusly so, I have decided on what you two shall do on my own." As Dumbledore smiled, his eyes appeared partially closed and his face took on a serene look.

"I would like the two of you to pose as a sort of teacher's assistants, alternating between each teacher throughout the school. That will give you reason to roam freely about the castle with little suspicion. The head of each house has already discussed it and has agreed that this is the best thing to do. In your spare time, however, you are allowed to do as you please. My only wish is that you keep your presence unknown to the student when you are about so. Is that agreeable?"

The three glanced to one another, turning their back to the old man a moment as they debated the issue at hand. It was a moment later before they turned back to face their client.

"We accept," all three said simultaneously and nodded their heads.

"Good." Dumbledore turned then to head back out but stop himself as he then remembered something. "Ah- there is something else that I wish to speak to you of but I suppose you shall hear of it along with the rest. Come then," he beckoned and they came back into the open. Eyes were turned their way, a few quietly whispered and others openly talking and pointing in their direction.

Extra chairs had been added to the end of the long wooden table where all the teacher sat and they knew it must be for them and they promptly sat down as Dumbledore waved them to it. The man then came to the center and sitting down upon his own chair. They followed suit but before the three ninjas could get a feel of the room, the door to the Great Hall opened up once more and the woman that had lead them here was now leading many drench and shivering first years towards the center of the room. The ninjas watched then in rapt silences as the woman place a wooden stool on the ground before the first years and atop of it, an extremely worn and patched up pointed hat.

To say that Naruto and his friends were quite startled that the shabby thing had started singing was an understatement. Naruto was in open face awe as he watch the hat sing. Sasuke was in silent contemplation as usual and his hard and icy face was hard to make out. Sakura looked rather appreciative of the object. She had read up after all on how wizard liked to magicked things, the thoughts of the wizards and/or witches being able to remain in the item for a long period of time. From the look of the hat, she knew it must have been a very—very long time since he it had been magicked.

Once it had stopped singing and applauses followed, the 'Sorting Ceremony' began. It was a tradition that has always been done within Hogwarts that allowed them to easily figure which house best suit the new students. It was a long while before it was over and when it was, the hall burst into applauses and Professor Dumbledore then offered everyone to 'tuck in'.

Surprisingly, with those word, an assortment of food magically appeared upon the table. Sasuke was left blinking and Sakura and Naruto, gaping at the many food that was there. Magic—magic was truly an interesting and very conventional power.

Naruto happily dug in, his behavior very much like the students below. Although he was quite disappointed that there was no ramen, he had to admit that the food was quite delicious—different but delicious.

When everyone had had their fill, every dish and tray practically licked clean and not a crumb was in sight, Albus Dumbledore took that moment then to stand and address the entire hall.

"Welcome," began Dumbledore, smiling around at them all. "Ladies, gentlemen, student, staffs and guest. I hope that you are all well fed and watered to your heart's content. I must once more now ask for your attention while I give out a few notice. As usual, I would like to remind you all that the Forbidden Forest is off-limits to all students- as is the village of Hogsmeade to all below third year.

"It is also my painful duty to inform you that this year, the Inter-house Quidditch Cup will not be taking place." At this time, grunt and groans of disapproval spread across the students below; objections were loudly spoken and question asked. Dumbledore promptly held up a hand and all noise cease.

"Please settle," Dumbledore continued. "The reason why this is so is that another event will be taking it's place in the coming month of October and will be continuing throughout the school year. It will take much of the time and energy from your teachers but I do assure you—that you will enjoy it quite immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts—"

His voice was then cut off by the sound of loud rumbling and the door of the Great Hall bangging open. Everyone blink, some jumping up in startlement as head turned to face the newcomer that was now coming down the aisle between two House table. A dull clank echoed throughout the hall with every step he took.

The man had a face that was hard to describe. A contorted face with scars all over that was twisted in the most disturbing of ways and his shaggy mane of hair didn't prove to help either way in improving his horrific looks, nor did his nose of which appeared to be missing a large chuck. His eyes though, his eyes was what caught everyone's attention. His eyes was what made him frightening. While one appeared rather ordinary, dark and beady, the other was large and round as a coin and a vivid, electric blue. It was moving carelessly about. Up, down, from side to side, and even back into his head and only white was seen.

Reaching Dumbledore, they shook hands and spoke quickly to one another, muttering and nodding their head a moment before Dumbledore smiled and gestured him to an empty sit at his right hand side before returning his attention to stun silent room, smiling brightly to all that was there.

"May I introduce you to your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" The headmaster glanced from one side of the room to the other. "Professor Moody." The usual applause that came when greeting a new teacher did not come. Everyone seemed too shock to say anything and seemed to be more enthrall by his bizarre eyes and could only stare. People began silently muttering among themselves however but Dumbledore cleared his throat to get their attention once more.

"Now—as I was saying. It's my great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament, an event that has not been held for over a century, will be taking place this year at Hogwarts." Immediately, everyone's attention was taken away from Moody's eyes and brought to stare dumbfounded at their headmaster. For those who knew what it was stare opened month and appeared quite stunned for words. Some did voice their question though and that seemed to lighten the mood within the room when a red headed boy shouted, "You're JOKING!" and everyone laughed. The tension in the room ease then and Dumbledore assured him that he wasn't joking. The man then went on to briefly explain what the Triwizard Tournament was. To simply put- it was a friendly competition between the three largest European schools of wizardry: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang and from each school, a champion was chosen to compete in magical tasks.

"The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will be arriving with their shortlisted contenders in October and the selection of the three champions will take place on Halloween. An impartial judge will decide which students are the most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of the school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."

The students below began immediately to boast their eagerness to go for the tournament but Dumbledore's next word halted all their thoughts.

"Eager as I know you all to be, I apologize to say that the Heads of the participating school, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose an age restriction on contenders this year," he said. "Only students who are of age—seventeen years or older—are allowed to put their names up for consideration. This" —Dumbledore raised a hand to silence the hall as people began then to loudly protest— "is all I have to say on the matter and that I will personally ensure that those who are underage do not try and enter. Now—" He glance to the side, twinkling eye now upon the silent ninjas who had yet to move or even say a word throughout the entire conversation. The attention on them had been forgotten when Moody had made his appearance but now that Dumbledore had his eyes on them, all eyes seemed to be directed at them once more as well.

"Now," Dumbledore repeated. "I will be introducing some other newcomers into our staffs this year." He waves a hand toward Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura who appeared quite startled to see that now all attention were upon them. They quickly schooled their features though before Dumbledore continued. "In the furthest corner is Ms. Sarah and next to her are Mr. Nicolas and Mr. Samuel." Each in turned stood and offered a slight bow of their head when the name was mention and quickly sat back down. "Miss Sarah is a newly appointed assistant nurse to Madame Pomprey while the other two will be a sort of assistant teachers. Although they will not be teaching, they will however, be watching. Inspiring teachers, they are, and wish to gain experiences here at Hogwarts and I am deeply happy to have them here. They will be attending each of your classes randomly so do not mind their presence. Due to our busyness in organizing of the Trwizard Tournament, we have yet to prepare a place for them to stay. However, I think it is best that they are allowed to temporarily room with the Gryffindors. Are there any objections?" None came.

"Now it is late as is and so I believe that it is time for you all to head to your Towers and get ready for bed." Everyone knowing a dismissal when they heard one, they began to file out, not without much animated talking anyway. There was so much to take in after all. Their new DADA teacher. The Triwizard Tournament. The three new strangers. This will indeed be one interesting year.

* * *

TBC

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Metaphysical****'s Ending Notes **- Translation Note & Et cetera.:

"Anatatachi shounen tachiha shizuka?!" --  
(**Will you boys be quiet?!**)

-

I'm sorry for the lateness and of how crappy this chapter turned out. I've been having internet problems and can't get on my computer as often as I wish. Now...

**About this chapter**: I got nothing really as nothing major happened in this chapter.

Now- here's a little something. **Care to name Naruto's Puffskein?**

Since I couldn't think of anything, I'm hoping you can.

I would appreciate it a lot if you did.

Now-- if you would so kindly- press that review button. Please and thank you.

Oh- and before anyone is confused- **Soifra **and **Metaphysical **are the same person. I just wanted a new alias.


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